ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), an humanitarian organisation, has lauded the Federal Government for the appointment of executive members of National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
The organisation called on state governments to domesticate the disability commission.Mr Ene Obi, the Country Director of AAN, made the commendation in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
The organisation said it welcomed the Federal Government’s commitment to creating a PWD friendly society.
Obi said that this development must translate to investments in infrastructure and public services for the needs of the teeming population.
“With an estimated population of 25 million Nigerians with disability (Human Rights Watch 2019), the need for a disability commission is long overdue.
“We applaud the Federal Government for making efforts to bring an end to years of exclusion of this valuable population through the establishment of a commission.
”We earnestly hope that the commission, through its mandate, will ensure that the education, healthcare and other social and economic rights of the people with disabilities contained in the 1999 Constitution and the Law on Rights of Persons with Disabilities will be upheld.
“Also worthy of emphasis is the need to ensure that at least five per cent of all public appointments go to people with disabilities as backed up by the law supporting the establishment of the commission.
“Only PWDs can proffer solutions to challenges they face and we call governments at all levels to honor this provision of the law,” he said.
Obi said the freedom of PWDs to move safely around urban and rural areas in Nigeria had been greatly constrained by plans and designs of transport systems that were insensitive to their needs and negative social norms that tolerated violence toward certain disabilities.
He also said that these insensitivities had exposed PWDs to violence whilst on the streets, especially women with disabilities facing multiple burden as they were exposed to the threat of gender-based violence while they went about their daily life.
”Key areas that require immediate attention include transformation of transport system to ensure adequate buses and stops, street lighting, recruitment of female transport staff, disability friendly public toilets and infrastructure that cater to their mobility and protection.
”More tax, well spent, can help make this happen, but aggressive reduction of corporate tax bills undermines the efforts of governments to secure resources to fund public services.
“Governments should ensure that PWDs participate equally and meaningfully in all processes around designing, legislating and budgeting for city planning and public transport,” she said.
Obi urged governments to leverage on additional revenue by closing tax loopholes to provide disability friendly public transport and other public services.
He called on state governments to expedite action in domesticating the disability commission as further delay would amount to great injustice, especially at a time when the world was battling COVID-19. (NAN)
