The Centre for Youth Studies (CYS) in Nigeria has called for a review of the social work curriculum to include the study and understanding of disabilities.

Development Diaries reports that the organisation’s Executive Director, Seyi Sanjo-Bankole, made the call during a capacity-building seminar for social work students tagged, ‘understanding of disabilities’.

Figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) indicate that Nigeria is home to an estimated 32 million people with disabilities.

According to data from a 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, seven percent of household members above the age of five (as well as nine percent of those who are 60 years of age or older) experience some difficulty in at least one functional domain.

This could be in seeing, hearing, communication, cognition, walking, or self-care. The survey also shows that one percent either have a lot of difficulties or cannot function at all in at least one domain.

Despite the fact that PWDs are among the most vulnerable people in the country, they are the least beneficiaries of the various national social protection programmes in some Nigerian states.

‘We will keep campaigning, sensitising and creating awareness…about the fact that PWDs are also human beings with intellect, talents, gifts, special abilities and value to give to the society’, Sanjo-Bankole said.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) bill into law in 2019. The Act ensures the protection and provision of rights to PWDs across all areas.

But despite the existence of the Act, PWDs in Nigeria are still being excluded from social, economic, and political spheres of life. This is mainly because many states have yet to domesticate the Act and there have been various barriers preventing its full enforcement in some states where it has been domesticated.

Photo source: Chika Oduah (VOA)