The Kaduna State Government has promised to implement the Disability Act to give visibility to persons with disabilities.
The Special Adviser to the state governor, Uba Sani on NGO matters, Zubairu Muktar, said that the act would also help to remove barriers in accessing services in public and private sectors.
Mr Muktar spoke at the end of a strategic round table discussion and orientation of media houses on disability reporting in Zaria.
The act was passed and signed by former governor Nasir El-Rufai in October 2021.
The programme was organised by a UK support in health transformation in Nigeria, Lafiya Project, in collaboration with SightSavers International.
Mr Muktar, who expressed dismay over non-implementation of the Act which had been signed into law since 2021, explained that he would meet with the governor within the week over implementation of the Act.
He, therefore, restated the commitment of the current Kaduna State government to ensuring that persons with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone.
Earlier, Disability Inclusion Adviser, Sight Savers, Monday Okwoli, commended the state governor for the initiative.
Mr Okwoli expressed the commitments of the NGO to partner with the state government for the implementation of the Act.
According to him, available statistics from the National Demographic Health Survey indicated that about 9.7 per cent of Nigerians had different disabilities.
He said, “This category of people with such a huge number cannot be relegated. Many of them lack access to public services such as education, health, empowerment and security empowerment programmes, among others.’’
Mr Okwoli said one of the aims of the orientation was to build the capacity of the media to know the stigma and discrimination faced by persons with abilities while accessing public services.
He added that the programme was also aimed at getting the nod from the media so that they could come up with programmes that would amplify more visibility for persons with disabilities and ameliorate their challenges.
He said, “Our belief is that when there is adequate right information in the public domain, the stigma and discrimination faced by people with disabilities while accessing services would be eroded.’’
Also, Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Disability Affairs Board, Rakiya Umar, commended the organisers of the programme and described the orientation workshop as educating and informative.
The executive secretary said implementation of the Disability Act would reduce barriers experienced by the person with disabilities and scale-up access to many services rendered by the board to its immediate constituency.
According to her, this action further denotes that more persons with disabilities will have improved access to empowerment from different centres of the board across the state.
“By implication, some of the people with disabilities, who are on the streets, would be rehabilitated,’’ she noted.
(NAN)