Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) has called on state governments in Nigeria that have yet to domesticate the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act to do so.
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) said it was important for state governments to make inclusion and participation of citizens with disabilities in governance and development programmes a priority.
In a statement marking the 2021 International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), the NGO noted continued discrimination and other harmful practices against citizens with disabilities.
The IDPD is a day set aside by the United Nations (UN) to promote a better understanding of disability issues with a focus on the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
The theme for this year’s IDPD is ‘Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-[Covid-19] world’.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, the number of PWDs in the country is around 28 million.
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 Africa’s most populous country operates a federal system of government, which means laws passed by the National Assembly do not automatically become applicable in all of the country’s 36 states.
It is understood that three years after its passage, only 13 states have domesticated the law.
‘We are worried that 36 months after the passage of the disability rights act, only 13 states have demonstrated measure to adopt the Act’, the Executive Director of CCD, David Anyaele, said in a statement to Development Diaries.
He also said, ‘We are worried that many states across the federation are struggling to budget for the integration and rehabilitation of citizens with disabilities, even when they are budgeted, persons with disabilities hardly benefit from such provision.
‘However, we commend states like Lagos State, Plateau, Ondo and Anambra States that have taken measures to not only pass disability bill, but have taken steps to create offices for disability affairs in their various states’.
He also said that the NGO was concerned that 34 months after the passage of the bill, citizens with disabilities are still left behind due to none implementation of the Act by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
‘This is evidenced by the none provision of necessary measures to enhance access to buildings of these MDAs, and inclusion of citizens with disabilities in their programmes and activities’, the statement read.
The CDD commended the House of Representatives for establishing an ad hoc committee on disability affairs, urging the senate and state houses of assembly to establish similar committees.
The nonprofit also urged the president to sign the Electoral Act Amendment bill into law to further protect the rights of PWDs in the country.
Photo source: CCD
