By Abayomi Adeshida
President Muhammadu Buhari has been implored to demonstrate more commitment to his willingness to make life easier for people living with disabilities in Nigeria by paying more attention to addressing the historic traumas that have been endemic in every facet of the society and festered a post-traumatic stress disorder that has continually fueled the insecurity, terrorism and social disturbances that have continued to linger in the society.
The President has therefore been urged to pay some attention to ameliorating the effects of historic traumas among Nigerians to consolidate the gains of establishing the Persons with Disabilities Commission so as to guarantee an enviable legacy for the President after he vacates office for a successor on May 29th, 2023.
In the same vein, the National Assembly has been advised to wake up to the responsibility of monitoring activities of the officials who run the activities of the Nigerian Disabilities Commission through a vibrant oversight function that would ensure proper implementation of the Nigerians Disability Law as passed by the legislators in 2019.
These were the views expressed by the President, Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International Incorporation, Chief Eric Ufom during a chat with Vanguard from his base in Houston Texas, United States of America when he was speaking on the impact of the laws that established the People with Disabilities Commission, one year after its pioneer Governing Council was constituted by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to him, “We appreciate the efforts of President Muhammdu Buhari for not only signing the bill that established the People with Disabilities Commission to the law in 2019, an action that gave a legal instrument to the activities of the body as established with the appointment of members of its Board on August 24th, 2020; but also taking the bold step to name the pioneer members of the Governing Council of the Commission.
“We were also delighted to see that beyond his naming of the people to run the activities of the Commission, we heard of budgetary allocations to the Commission which was made available to establish a solid foundation for the running of the place in a clear demonstration of his promise not to have any abandoned project in the country under his watch as President.
“It is regrettable that despite all the President has done to ensure that he leaves an indelible mark on the sands of time, there are self-centred individuals who have seen their appointment to run the Commission as an opportunity to get a fair share of the National cake.
“Such people have gone way off the guidelines of the laws that established the Commission by taking their own discretions while setting the laws aside and once the foundation is faulty, what can the righteous do?
“It is not a hopeless situation for the country yet. We would urge President Buhari to take more steps beyond the establishment of the Nigerian Disabilities Commission and pay quality attention to ensuring that those appointed to help the physically challenged in Nigeria do follow a due process according to global best practices because if the due process is not followed in the Commission, everything would fall apart.
“There are historic traumas in all parts of Nigeria that require proper handling by a Commission that is manned by highly patriotic officials without some dent on their records in their previous activities as public officials who are well-grounded in following the due process in the implementation of the laws that established the Commission,” Chief Ufom maintained.
When asked to substantiate his claims on the endemic historic traumas across the country he said, “In the South East, the historic trauma of the civil war and the post-traumatic stress disorder that came with the war has aggravated an endemic bitterness that would require quality attention to wear off the effects on the larger society.
“In a similar manner, the cultural and religious practices of the Northern part of the country that breeds the Almajiris is an incubator for historic traumas on its own and the effects of the post-traumatic stress disorder that it also generates would require a deliberate commitment to take away from the society.
“Despite the civilization that seems to have commenced from the South Western part of the country, there are effects of communal clashes across the region like the Ife/Modakeke war as well as the economic imbalance and other challenges that swell the ranks of Area Boys and Out of Schoolchildren in the region which make them become street urchins that cause security challenges for the society.
“These series of historic traumas that originated from those gory experiences have been passed down from generation to generation and victims of post-traumatic stress disorder are swelling in their ranks daily and the nation is bleeding daily from security challenges across the land.
“It is regrettable that the President has played his part by doing what should be done to put a structure in place to provide a lasting solution, but when you put money in the place and people are just sharing it without any consideration for the laws that established the Commission, what is the future of the entire country? Chief Ufom lamented.
When asked about the visible gaps in the activities of the Commission one year after the members of the Governing Council that are laying the foundation for the Commission got the Presidential appointment, Chief Ufom said there are so many of them but he would only dwell on two valid points that are very significant.
In his words, “we are grateful to the President that he signed the bill that established the Commission to the law on January 23, 2019, and followed it with the appointment of the Governing Council members on August 24th, 2020, but it would interest you to note that after a whole year that we crossed that hurdle, those members of the Commission lack individual office spaces from where they operate.
“Secondly, there has not been any orientation course for those who are working in the Commission so as to have them working from an informed point of view that such orientation course would have inculcated into them in order for the Commission to take off on a strong footing through proper implementation of the laws that established it.
“Its is during such training that every officer would be told why he was appointed, the results expected from each member on the Board and who is supposed to be taking orders from the other before certain actions can be taken, however noble the intentions could be for the generality of the Commission.
“Having been on this struggle for things to be done through the established global standards for over twenty years, it is regrettable that in spite of the achievements so far, Nigeria is yet to start addressing age-long historic traumas and their mysteriously debilitating, physical and psychological effects which is a post-traumatic stress disorder.
“The worst effect of this problem is that because their victims are in a society where poverty is endemic, they find a way to inflict the traumas on the larger society by providing an available reservoir for insecurity in the country.
“Lack of true implementation of the Nigerians with Disabilities Act 2018 by the Executive arm of Government and proper oversight by the Legislative arm destroys excellent historic legacy made by President Buhari for over 31 million Nigerians with disabilities.
“President Buhari signed the Act into law on January 23, 2019, and followed it up with the establishment of the Commission on August 23, 2020, with the announcement of the membership of the Governing Council of the Commission.
“While we watch helplessly as some officials of the Commission are working without any proper reference to the guidelines as stipulated in the laws that established the Commission, the legislative arm of government has also failed to perform an oversight function to see to proper compliance with the laws by the officials in the Commission.
“It is very surprising for us to see that the legislators who are supposed to supervise the implementation of the laws they passed are more concerned with what has happened during an incident at the airport when someone was boarding a flight.
“Although that is equally important because most Nigerians with disabilities cannot afford to join the elitist club of airline passengers, for now, we would plead with those legislators to deploy such energy to the proper implementation of the laws of the Commission so that majority of the people in the country can benefit from the establishment of the Commission.
“When established States and Federal Government Disabilities Rights Commission for use in addressing historic traumas have clearly failed to obey and implement the laws used in establishing them, Nigeria’s ongoing epidemic problems of insecurity, insurgency, terrorism, agitation, kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, age-long community disputes cannot be stopped,” he stressed.