Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD) Balanga Local Government Area, LGA branch of Gombe State have challenged the polity over rationales for the exclusion of Persons With Disabilities, PWDs, in governance.

The pressure group spoke with Inclusive News Network, INN, on Tuesday when a group of Persons With Disabilities thronged office of the Chairman, Hon. Garba Umar, to express grievances over recurrent exclusion, marginalization and discrimination of PWDs in Governance.

Leader of the group, Mr. Abubakar Talasse told INN that the peaceful protest to the council Secretariat was originally meant to call attention of government top-shots within Balanga LGA and the State to the plights of PWDs in the council. This minority group suffer various forms of marginalization. It is therefore imperative to find means of ensuring their full integration and inclusion in governance and public services.

“We came here today with a mission to call attention of our leaders to our plights. We are tired of being abandoned to roam the streets begging for alms and being reduced to mere objects of charity.

Our people have the capacity to contribute meaningfully to the development of Balanga LGA in particular, and the State at large. What we need is full inclusion in the government”.

Mr Abubakar further lamented that despite the few number of Persons with Disabilities with the legitimate qualifications for public service and potential to contribute to development of the society, these persons are excluded from government.

“We have few graduates with flying colors from recognized institutions yet nobody employs them. Our people have no sense of belonging in the government”, he lamented.

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The demonstrating group was received by deputy chairman of Balanga LGA Mr. Salamu Ezekiel. Ezekiel represented the Chairman of the council, Hon. Garba Umar who, at time of the visit was on official assessment .

Speaking in response to issues raised by leader of the group, Mr. Ezekiel said he was deeply shocked to hear the complaints brought forward by the group and he sympathized with them in this regard. His words, “when I heard your complaints I was terribly shocked, I still do. It’s unfortunate that such things have happened to your people. In my opinion, what happened was not intentional. Far from that”!

The deputy chairman who appeared deeply concerned about the plights of the group expressed hope that the situation would be contained in the right priorities at the right time. “I assure you that the council under the able leadership of Hon. Garba Umar would do everything humanly possible to accommodate People with Disabilities in our policies.

“When our leader return from his official assignments, we will discuss your problems at length, and by God’s grace come up with the right solutions for containing the problems. I imploy you to be prayerful and hopeful” Mr Ezekiel said.

INN gathered that Balanga LGA is one of the leading LGAs in Gombe State with significant population of PWDs who continue to suffer gross governmental neglect.

A member of JONAPWD Balanga LGA branch who does not want his name in print said he was sad because Balanga LGA is blessed with many successful and prominent personalities that have contributed immensely to the development of Gombe State but could not support PWDs in Balanga LGA. These people, he laments, showed no interest on the plights of PWDs in the local government.

This, according to him, is one reason warranting the protest to the council Chairman.

A group, Social Welfare Integrated Program Initiative, SWIPI, has launched an initiative designed to bridge the identified gaps in social welfare practice in Lagos State with the main objective of achieving a society that looks after the least vulnerable people.

Speaking at a media chat on the formal launch of the initiative scheduled to hold in Lagos on Thursday, Chairman of SWIPI, Dr. Kolawole Ajayi, said SWIPI would be intervening critically to assist orphanages, elderly care homes, children, People Living With Disabilities, PLWDs and the mentally challenged, notably in the areas of infrastructure, medical, education, nutrition and training needs.

Ajayi, who addressed the media alongside key officials of SWIPI, said the organization was conceived from the need to standardize social welfare practice in the society and intervene where necessary to help the needy.

According to him, “The plight of the most vulnerable in society is a collective responsibility that falls on every global citizen. SWIPI has stepped in to fill some of the gaps that are prevalent in the care and management of vulnerable people in our society.

“We have taken steps to meet these needs by paying visits to all care homes in Lagos with an emphasis on orphanages, elderly care homes, children with special needs, and mentally challenged to identify needs and proffer adequate solutions to them.

“Some of the gaps noticed mostly were in infrastructure, medical, education, nutrition, and training needs. As an example, we have delivered a training curriculum, using world-class facilitators and the feedback has been improved knowledge and delivery of care by the caregivers in the homes.””

Giving details, Ajayi said, the SWIPI team had already visited all the 64 orphanages in Lagos State, and that steps were being taken to address the identified needs, just as he said some of the needs have already been addressed.

“Talking about the infrastructural gaps, there are places we went to that lack a good source of water and toilet facilities. SWIPI had to dig boreholes and also provided water treatment plants for them.

“There are some homes without toilets and some with bathrooms serving both boys and girls without separation. Children have grown to the point that we need to make things the way they should be and the point is that government cannot do everything all alone. We have to intervene and this is one of the objectives of SWIPI,” Ajayi said.

Ajayi, who has been a paediatrician for more than 30 years, said SWIPI was also working towards ending the stigmatization associated with children with special needs, especially from the point of view of families hiding such children, adding: “What we are doing is to identify them, link them up with orphanages with expertise to care for them, and then commence some kind of management.”

Also, speaking, a member of the group, Valerie Ekperigin, said SWIPI was working in collaboration with state agencies, especially the Ministry of Youth and Social Development, and counting on the support of other stakeholders to achieve the set objectives.

The Executive Secretary National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Mr James David Lalu has assured that the Commission will partner with African Polling Institute and other Stakeholders in the disability community, to protect the rights of Persons with Disabilities, to alleviate their plights in Nigeria and to further ensure their inclusion in all government programmes.

The ES made this assurance recently in Abuja during a validation Workshop organized by the API which was themed “validation for workshop on PWDs’ diagnostic tools for Institutions in Nigeria”

In his address, the ES re-affirmed his commitments to providing a baseline for inclusion and accessibility for persons with disabilities in Nigeria.

He further harped on the importance of the documents on PWDs which he also stated would help bridge the gaps between Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Persons with Disabilities in the country.

Lalu however, disclosed that the document will also assist in having unalloyed deliberations with MDAs. He also promised that the document will be put in use by the Commission in a very near future.

The ES commended API for generating the document/data and assured that it will be pushed for policy changes considering that 90% of policies in Nigeria do not have provisions for Persons with Disabilities.

“As API is helping to fill in the gaps, the Commission is gearing to put this document in action before the end of 2022” he assured.

In his response, the Executive Director African Polling Institution, Professor Bell Ihua commended the ES for taking time out of his tight schedules to be part of the validation Workshop.

Ihua futher presented five components of the workshop which include networking with NPS to gather statistics, action research component to engage scholars from six geo-political zones of the country, sexual and gender based violence among PWDs, Development of diagnostic tools capacity building for Persons with Disabilities across communities in Nigeria and what have you.

Present at the meeting with the Executive Secretary were the Ag. Director Social Integration Department NCPWD Mr Lawrence Idemudia and the Sign language interpreter NCPWD Mr Timothy Tinat.

The National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, (NCPWD) under the astute leadership of its Executive Secretary, Mr. James David Lalu has organized a 2-day validation workshop of the Five-Year Strategic Plan of the Commission held in Abuja on 3rd and 4th of February, 2022.

The event which drew attendance and participation of leaders of Organizations of Persons with Disabilities, OPDs, Civil Society Organizations, International Development Agencies and other critical stakeholders from the Nigerian Disability Community was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve for an all inclusive government.

Nevertheless, the Executive Secretary National Commission for Persons with Disabilities Mr. James David Lalu in his keynote address reassured that the Strategic Plan upon validation will capture a wide range of issues that border on better co-existence of persons with disabilities .

He lauded the efforts of the partner organization, Sightsavers and stated that the time was ripe for all stakeholders to come together to ensure that the mandate of the Commission was accomplished.

The ES further declared that there is a need for the various CSOs and OPDs to come together to work in harmony and with purpose.

”It was one thing to have pushed for the establishment of the Commission, it is another for all willing partners and disability stakeholders to come together to work collectively in order to ensure that the fortunes of PWDs in the country is turned around”, he said.

Lalu also seized the occasion to reiterate his passion and dedication to the ideals and values upon which the Disability Act and the Commission was founded and stated that it was his determination to ensure that all PWDs would have unfettered access to the broad range of social services that would assure them of better standard of living.

Speaking at the occasion, the Lead, Disability Inclusion desk, Sightsavers, Mr. Rasak Adekoya hinted that the workshop was geared towards validating the draft of the Five-year Strategic Plan of NCPWD.

He said that it is the culmination of an extensive strategic development effort, centered around carving a roadmap for the implementation of the provisions of the Disability Act for the period spanning 2022 to 2026 which involved broad consultation with stakeholders and duty bearers within the disability community.

In the same vein, the Director, Planning Research and Statistics of the Commission, Mr. Soji Adewale in his opening remarks appreciated the tireless efforts of Sightsavers, acknowledging that their commitment to the project was very instrumental to the successful development of the Strategic document.

Earlier in her goodwill message, Ms Onyinye Atuanya of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, (FCDO) thanked the ES for his conscious efforts towards advancing the course of disability community and equally reiterated the commitment of the FCDO to advancing Disability Inclusion.

She stated that Inclusion was a crucial agenda for her organization and formed the centerpiece of FCDO’s Disability Inclusion Strategy (DIS) which was a strong feature of the International Development Strategy (IDS).

She added that the IDS encapsulates the UK plan to offer developing countries including Nigeria, the necessary support to help them build back better in the wake of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lead consultant, Dr. Toyin Aderemi stated that the Strategic Plan was a well thought-out working document which would serve as an operational instrument that would govern the implementation of the Disability Act and all of the provisions.

She stated that the activities and interventions captured in the document addressed how PWDs could benefit maximally from key activities and services spamming inclusive Education, Quality Healthcare, Economic Empowerment and Social Protection.

She opined that as much as the Document already covered a lot of grounds and was exhaustive, that participants at the workshop should be able to identify one or two areas wherein some inputs could be made, modified and or adjusted to reflect the realities of the challenges faced by PWDs and how the Document could address them.

Participants at the event were sorted into five groups with each group reviewing different parts of the Strategic document and making their inputs and modifications as they deemed appropriate.

The World Bank represented by Ms. Cindy Ikeala also lauded the Commission and her partners for the efforts concerted towards the development of the Strategic Document, declaring that the World Bank remains committed to Disability Inclusive development which she described as directly responsive to the institution’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.

She, however reiterated the World Bank’s readiness to support and provide technical assistance to the Commission in the efforts to implement the outlined strategic interventions as captured within the Document.