After close to three years of dithering between the National Assembly and the Presidency, the long-awaited Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Bill was last Wednesday signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
With the new law in place, common discriminating attitudes, actions or inactions by corporate entities and individuals against people living with disabilities (PLWD) will henceforth attract severe sanctions as prescribed in the Act. Speaking further on the new law, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, said, “This Act prohibits all forms of discrimination on the grounds of disability and imposes fines of N1m for corporate bodies and N100,000 for individuals or a term of six months imprisonment for violation concurrently.”
The law also provides for a five-year transitional period within which public buildings, structures or automobiles should be modified to be accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, including those on wheelchairs. It also warns that any officer approving or directing the approval of a public building plan that fails to factor in accessibility facilities in line with building code for people with impairments shall be liable on conviction to a fine of at least N1m or a term of imprisonment of two years or both.
According to Sen. Enang, discrimination is also forbidden in public transportation facilities and service providers should make provision for the physically, visually and hearing impaired and all persons howsoever challenged at seaports, railways and airport facilities. He also said the rights and privileges of PLWD included education, healthcare as well as priority in accommodation and emergencies, stating that the law also stipulated that five per cent of employment opportunities was to be reserved for them.
The highpoint of the new law is the establishment of the National Commission for Persons with Disability to be headed by an Executive Secretary. The Act has brought a huge relief to this hapless class of Nigerians. The battle against the unfortunate practice of discrimination was unsuccessfully fought during the regime of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo through that of Yar’Adua/Jonathan. Nigeria accounts for 20m of the population of disabled persons.
However, this figure is conservative given their heavy presence in many parts of the country most especially those who roam the streets as beggars and destitute persons.
This is aside from those that fake one form of disability or the other in order to earn a living owing to harsh economic conditions or joblessness. Several factors fuel disabilities. Chief among them are wars, diseases, congenital complications, lack of access to healthcare, poor attention at old age and socio-cultural beliefs that frown at immunisations against childhood diseases like polio.
It is public knowledge that persons with disabilities, especially the ambitious ones have little hope of getting education, securing a job, having their own homes, families and raising their children, socialising or even exercising their civic rights during elections. From primordial times, there has been a huge discrimination against people with disabilities which the Act will now eliminate.
It is these marginalisation and denigration of this category of people that have thrown up street begging as a means of livelihood and its attendant public nuisance. But some physically challenged Nigerians have underscored the axiom that there is ability in disability.
First to do this was the late Professor Bitrus Gani Ikilama who became a visually impaired graduate of Physiotherapy. He rose to the apogee of his career and was head of the Physiotherapy Department of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) caught the revelation of according recognition to the physically challenged persons when it introduced Paralympic Games to injured servicemen and women in 1948 after the World War II.
The scope was widened in 1960 at the Rome Olympics. Nigerian paralympians have proven to their compatriots over time that what an able-bodied person can do, a person with disability can do even better. They demonstrated this at the 2012 London Games and Rio 2016 during which they clinched several medals of all hues.
Those accomplishments have helped in changing the perception of Nigerians about their conditions, freeing them from the bondage of self-pity. We commend President Buhari for making good his promise which was part of his campaign strategy in the build-up to the 2015 polls even though it took him so long to do so. Consequently and in appreciation of the support he got from them, he appointed a visually impaired, Samuel Ankeli, as an adviser on disability.
We equally rejoice with all Nigerians living with disabilities over the development. It is hoped that the law will not only mark a turning point in their lives but also motivate them to contribute immensely to the socio-economic and political development of the country
