Stakeholders and advocates of Persons With Disabilities have deliberated on the need for members of the National Disability Commission to work for the interest of Persons With Disabilities.
They spoke at a one day stakeholders forum tagged “Convening On Next Level Disability Advocacy In Nigeria” organised by Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD).
Executive Director of CCD, David Anyaele said the forum was to provide a platform to design a work plan with which to engage the Disability Commission.
“We are here to deepen our knowledge and we have done that. So, moving forward we are going to design our work plan in order to engage the incoming members of the board if the commission.
“If we don’t get it right, right now, we will miss it. For us to get it right is for us to deepen our knowledge around the mandate of the commission in order for us to accelerate,” Anyaele said.
Also speaking, former Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi in his presentation highlighted ways PWDs can hold the Commission accountable.
“It’s important who is appointed but its not sufficient to guarantee. It is an important guarantee on the effectiveness of the commission who is appointed but its not sufficient. Therefore, do not place so much hope on the personal morality or credibility of those appointed.
“Force them to create clear guidelines that commits them to listen to their essential assertions of persons with disabilities with assembling so that before they take any action,there is a requirements in laws for them to consult. So its better for us to hit out strong, step out with our best feet so that we can build on that,” Amadi said.
In his contribution, a representative of the National Assembly, Muhammed Hassan said with the recognition of the Commission now, the modus operandi has to change.
“We must have a committee of the Parliament that will supervise and they will oversight the functions of this commission. So it is our ladder now. We are going to engage them more than the way we engage a lot of them in a different platform and the way we engage the leadership,” he said.
The forum also deliberated on modalities for engagement between the new board of the Disability Commission and PWDs.