By Tina Abeku
Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, (PWDs), Dr. James Lalu, has called for equal opportunity opportunities consideration for the over 35 million persons with disabilities in Nigeria.
He stated this at a meeting with the minister Youth Development, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim, on ways of engaging PWDs in activities that enable them earn a living, in Abuja.
“Within the disability community, we have an estimated 35.5 million Nigerians with disability and as a Commission, we must cater for them across the country.
“A mass population of 63 percent of this number are youth and disability issues cut across every sector today in Nigeria hence, it is important for us to go out and partner and collaborate with the different Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, (MDAs), for the benefit of persons with disabilities in Nigeria and this is why we are partnering the federal ministry of youth,” he said.
On her part, the minister said her ministry will allocate ten percent of all its programmes and projects for youths within the disability community.
She noted that federal government is committed to addressing issues affecting persons with disabilities at different levels.
According to Dr. Ibrahim, “”There is going to be inclusion of persons with disabilities in the national youth policy and the 10 percent quota that was requests for inclusion in all the ministry’s program by the ES will be granted , i look to workout with the Commission to ensure that the rights of young people living disabilities are protected and they live with dignity.
“We have proposed some programmes for persons living with disabilities across the six geopolitical zones which include mentorship, we hope to bring more young people to learn more about leadership that is required to address the challenges of person living because Leadership requires that we build capacity in order to ensure that the voices of the constituencies that we represent are heard and acted upon.”