The Executive secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disabilities James David Lalu has indicated that it will take almost 100 years to meet 50% of the expectations of people with disabilities based on meagre budget of N1, 749, 884, 495 allocated for the commission
He spoke yesterday during the budget defense of the commission before the senate committee on special duties.
According to him, even if the new commission is going to be allocated N20 Billion every year, it will take almost 20 years to meet half of their needs.
“Just the provision of assistive device only, before a person can get artificial limbs that can last for more than five years he will require N500, 000.
He said at the moment that Nigeria is facing so much challenges of crises a lot of people are already becoming members of persons with disabilities. “Some of them because of gun shots and they are amputated. Today in Nigeria we are with the statistics everyday in our tertiary health facilities you have one or two persons being amputated.
“And an amputated person who does not have artificial limb but walks with clutches automatically can not go to farm, he will not be able to fend for himself and when it happens he may resort to begging. Just because he has no wheel chair he may not be able to go to school and this a way that a potential president and a potential Local Government chairman or a potential senator is wasted just because he does not have the basic limb.
“These are things that are tied to us as a commission that we are to provide for them so that they can stand on their own.”
He said despite all the COVID-19 palliatives given to persons with disabilities if they are not provided with basic assistive devices to stand on their own to do business or farming automatically they can not do anything.
He said the commission was established and their appointments were announced on the 24th of August 2020.
“It was established mainly to take care of persons with disabilities across the federation.
“We have accumulated population of 31.5 million persons with disability across Nigeria.”
He explained that the commission’s main mandate is to take care of their education, their health, livelihood, provision of accessible facilities, and protection of their lives and dignity as citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said taking care of their education means they have to ensure the enrolment of their children in schools from primary to tertiary education.
“When you talk about empowerment, it starts with education and providing education for them is the first thing we have to do.
“In the area of health to provide healthcare services to persons with disability across Nigeria, in the area of livelihood we have to ensure that persons with disability are properly empowered to stand on their own and fend for themselves.
“In the area of accessibility it is within our mandate to ensure that all public buildings in Nigeria are properly accessible for persons with disability with provision of all accessible facilities to ensure that our people can move freely everywhere.”
This he said is important so that they can have many of them as senators like the committee members so they can make their contribution to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said their mandate which has to do with the protection of their rights is to make sure that they reduce to the bearest minimum discrimination against every person with disability in every government circle, so that they can participate in every Government activity.
“Our approach as a commission is inclusive development approach
So it is no longer charity but to see persons with disability as partners in progress.
“We must make sure we mainstream people with disability into all government programme and projects.
“To at least ensure 10 percent inclusion of persons with disability in all Government activities”
In the area of employment he said the national disability commission has already made provision for 5% of persons with disability employment.
“We are soliciting the cooperation of this committee to ensure we realise the 5% employment opportunity for persons with disabilities in all Government parastatals.
“Provision of disability specific services which has to do with a lot of disability assistive devices.
“A lot of persons with disability today require artificial limbs, some hearing aid, these are some of the things tied to the disability commission to make sure we respond to these in all of the 774 local Governments in Nigeria.
“The expectations of persons with disability in this commission is very very high. We require the support of your committee to see how we can meet with these Dmands.”
He said when the senators go for their campaigns they will see persons with disabilities in their constituencies who also support them one way or the other.
“Our budget proposal for the 2021 was N1, 749, 884, 495 for the personel cost it is N749884498 and for Overhead it is N299,999,997
Capital cost N700m.
Looking into our mandate is to cater for all persons with disability in all 774 local Government areas and over 8000 electoral wards in Nigeria.
He asked the committee to consider an upward review of the budget so they can meet with high expectations from the disability community.
He said in their budget there is provision for data and provision for disability certificate to make it possible to identify their members and make sure that all the interventions that are going to be provided are provided for the real persons with disabilities.
The chairman of the committee senator Yusuf Yusuf demanded that the commission establish a database for people with disabilities—from local governments to states to ascertain the exact number.
“Then we will know the kind of health facilities we have to provide, the kind of capacity building you are going to make, means of livelihood, education etc.
“I looked at your 2021 budget to see which area we are going to capture that for making provision for effective database. We will look at it so see what amendments to make to give you leeway to spend money.”
He also canvassed for the creation of zonal and states offices as he pointed out the fact that it was not captured in the budget.
“But we will look at it to see how you are going to build your offices. We would want that structure of state and local government offices in the next 24 hours.”
National update