A member of the Governing Board, Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), Dr. Adebukola Adebayo has enjoined People Living With Disabilities (PLWDs) in Nigeria to make themselves available in the electoral process as Nigeria approaches another election year.
Adebayo made this call at a media roundtable discussion in commemoration of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD), organized by the Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) in collaboration with Nigeria Association of the Blind under the amplify change project on recently in Lagos.
Welcoming participants mainly persons living with disabilities to the event, Executive Director of JAAIDS, Olayide Akanni, said persons living with disabilities must feel the sense of inclusiveness by the access created for them by the society.
Speaking at the event one of the speakers, Adebayo, a visually impaired activist getting involved in politics said the PLWDs must not be left behind in the scheme of things.
Sensitizing the participants about the provision of a disability framework by the Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC), asking them to be aware of, Adebayo said, “INEC has just developed a disability framework. I was privileged to review that framework and we are hoping if well implemented, in a few years’ time, we would have all arrived at the Promised Land as far as inclusion is concerned.”
He states further that, “Election is not just about casting votes, but it also involves a lot of processes and what we are saying as PLWDs is that all the aspects of electioneering must be assessable to all including PLWDs.”
Talking about discrimination against people living with disabilities, Adebayo said, “As far as the constitution is concerned, it didn’t say people with disabilities should be discriminated against and the Electoral Act includes everybody including PLWDs.”
He also noted that the electoral law is not so detailed because the government is not all that disability sensitive. He, however, enjoined the government to be deliberate about issues concerning PLWDs.
“Being disability sensitive, it means the government ought to make deliberate provision for persons that have one special need or the order, this might be responsible for people that are meant to implement them often forget when they are making plans,” he said.
Adebayo, however, applauded INEC for its recent provisions for blind voters. According to him, “We know that efforts were made to accommodate blind voters in Osun and Ekiti elections, we know that INEC has established disability desk in all their centers. We are also clamoring that those desks be manned by people living with disabilities.
“Apart from INEC, we are pushing that other actors like political parties should engage PLWDs.
Some of them are giving palliatives to PLWDs by giving us slots, we still have polling booths that are not compatible, we are not where we want to be yet, he said.
He, however, noted that PLWDs should not keep boasting in their population but should translate such population to votes in 2019.
“It is not about brandishing our population that we are 2.2million. If we don’t translate it to votes then it means nothing as far as our politicians are concerned,” he said concluding that, “Disability community is now becoming a bride for politicians even if we don’t want them to hijack us or politicize the civil society, whether we like it or not they are now seeing the values in us and they are all coming around.”
