Deaf Nigerians demand 5% slot in govts’ employment, others

The Nigeria National Association of the Deaf (NNAD), has demanded that 5 per cent slot should be reserved for qualified deaf Nigerians in employment into the federal or state civil service, while sign language interpreters should be employed in hospitals and health institutions “to provide access to quality health care services.”

These demands were contained in a communiqué made available to the media Monday in Abuja by the association; as part of the celebration of the 2019 International Day of Sign Languages, with the theme “sign language rights for all”.

In the communiqué, which was signed by

NNAD national vice president, Mohammed Adelami, national president of Association of Sign Language Interpreters in Nigeria, Timothy Tinat,

 and president of Parents of the Deaf Children, Fatima Abubakar Doki, the association expressed gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the disability bill into law on the 23rd of January, 2019, but said that “the deaf community is yet to feel the impact of other palliative measures currently run by the present government”.

The association also demanded that government should, as a matter of urgency, establish a commission for persons with disabilities “to expedite action on inclusion process, mainstreaming disability in governance for the next level agenda.”

The communiqué reads in part: “The Association and its allies wishes to thank the United Nations, under the leadership of the Secretary General, Anthonis Guteras, for ensuring that the rights of the deaf are recognised by state parties through the ratification and domestication of the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which Nigeria is a signatory.

“The Nigeria National Association of the Deaf is the umbrella body of the deaf and hard of hearing in Nigeria established in 1979 to protect the rights of the deaf and promote the political and socio-economic empowerment of the Nigerian deaf. To achieve our objectives has been strained, especially with the absence of enabling laws and policies that will ensure our equal participation at all levels; to the development of the country.

“This means that our intellectual and human capacity has been wasted and underutilized. While several attempts have been made over decades by charity organizations, individual philanthropies and agencies of government to ensure our full inclusion, these gestures were abused and exploited by some, while others were frustrated due to lack of enabling laws.

“In each employment done in the federal civil service and state, 5% percent slot should be reserved for qualified Nigeria deaf. Sign language interpreters should be employed in hospitals and health institutions to provide access to quality health care services. Government should improve the quality of Deaf Education in Nigeria by providing adequate funding for deaf schools and employ qualified teachers with sign language skills.

“The country should mainstream deaf studies into conventional universities and create specialized universities for the study of deaf languages and other research areas to do with disabilities and impairments. Additionally, Sign Language should be made a National Language and the media should include issues of the Deaf in all their programing.”

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