The All Progressives Congress honored the nation’s approximately 25 million people with disabilities on Saturday for their contributions to dignity, accomplishments, and global recognition.
This was stated in a statement made in Abuja to honor the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by the party’s PWDs National Leader, Tolu Bankole.
Beyond the international day of observation, according to Bankole, the ruling party has not neglected to recognize the accomplishments of politicians and athletes with impairments, including those making waves in the fields of ICT, business, and academia.
The purpose of the yearly PWDs observance day is to increase awareness of disability issues and to rally support for the dignity, rights, and well-being of people with disabilities.
The theme for the 2022 edition, “Transformative solutions for inclusive development – The role of innovation in fueling an accessible and equitable world,” has been characterized as a call to action to invest in PWDs in order to combat poverty, spur economic growth, and advance Nigeria’s economic development.
The APC-led administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Bankole continued, has in particular played a significant role in addressing the variety of difficulties facing the PWD community.
He said, “With about one in every eight Nigerians living with at least one form of disability, most common of these disabilities are visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, intellectual impairment, and communication impairment.
“President Buhari has assented to Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, and other intervention programmes to alleviate the plight of PWDs in Nigeria.
“The APC, being a friend to the PWDs, has strongly and consistently advocated for their inclusion and improvement of lives, which subsequently led to the free nomination form given out to all the PWDs aspirants at all levels in the build-up to the 2022 APC primaries.
“As the leader of the PWDs, I personally disbursed grants and empowerment to women and men in different PWDs clusters nationwide to engender financial inclusion. Bursary and scholarships were awarded to students with disabilities across the country while we also paid for GCE forms of hundreds of SSS 3 students to drive home our call for educational inclusion.
“We organised and self-sponsored the first PWDs’ national summit at NICON Hilton Abuja where far reaching resolutions have been forwarded to the appropriate authorities for prompt actions.”
However, the APC Presidential campaign council member claimed that there was still more the federal government could be doing for the neighborhood.
Bakole stated that no fewer than 2.5 billion individuals worldwide required at least one assistive product, citing the Global Report on Assistive Technology.
He continued by saying that the GRAT forecast indicated that by 2050, the need might increase to 3.5 billion.
“The requirement may range from a spectacle to highly advanced myoelectric hand or robotic exo-skeletons. However, nearly nine out of 10 persons who need assistive technology do not have access and this often have adverse impact on their education, livelihood, health and well-being.
“Government must champion innovation which will improve access of the PWDs to assistive technologies in Nigeria without further delay. We believe that availability and affordability of assistive smart technologies to the PWDs will enable them to participate equally and effectively in society with others and face no barriers,” he stated.
In order to stop discrimination, stigmatization, and rejection of the PWDs in Nigeria, he also urged for the political appointment of their members as federal ministers and state commissioners.
