- The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities and Others have challenged the National Assembly to pass the Disability Bill
- The groups have expressed their concerns about the circumstances surrounding the whereabouts of the bill
- The groups challenge the National Assembly to consider the uniqueness of people with disabilities during design and development of social programs
As the world observed the International Day of Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) on December 3, sequences of activities were organised by the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) and Disability Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) during the week in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
CCD in collaboration, with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), on Tuesday, December 5, held media dialogue on Nigeria’s disability bill before the National Assembly. They, they accused the government of excluding them in the various social intervention programmes of the present administration.
They allege that the N-Power programme and its likes were designed without consideration for people with disabilities, adding that the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also exclude them.
Executive Director of CCD, David Anyaele, who fired the salvo called for right-based approach in the conception and implementation of development programmes.
He lamented that the absence of disability bill had denied over 25 million people with disabilities in Nigeria of some critical aspects of human rights, adding that the bill harmonised by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees since December 6, last year, was nowhere to be found in the National Assembly.
According to him, the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Bill 2015 is “a bill for an Act to ensure full integration of persons with disabilities into the society and to establish a National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and vest with it the responsibilities for the education of the disabled, including their healthcare and the protection of their social, economic and civic rights (SB022).”
Daily Sun gathered that the bill sponsored by Senator Francis Alimikhena was passed by the Senate on July 13, 2016 while “A Bill for an Act to ensure full integration of Nigerians with disabilities into the society and eliminate all forms of discrimination against them 2016, HB 476,” sponsored by Ochiglegor Idagbo was passed by the House of Representatives on June 9, 2016.
The Joint Conference Committee for the harmonization of the bill was inaugurated on November 22, last year and was led from the Senate by Senator Obinna Ogba and by Hon. Orkey Jev Emmanuel in the House of Representatives.
It was further learnt that at the close of the meeting of the Joint Conference Committee, the Senate version was adopted on December 6.
Surprisingly, nothing was heard again about the bill, prompting people with disabilities to raise the alarm that the bill was missing, especially, in the light of their previous unpalatable experience where ex-presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan failed to assent similar bills passed by the National Assembly.
Presenting their frustration, Anyaele said: “It is based on this delay, one year after harmonization of this bill without dispatch to the President for assent that compelled us to seek for your intervention to save the lives of more than 25 million Nigerians with disabilities.”
Also speaking, Programme Coordinator (Economics) of OSIWA, Joseph Amenahon urged policy makers and all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that people with disabilities were carried along in government’s policies and programmes.