Group makes case for PWDs commission, budget

Kpapkando Foundation, in conjunction with scores of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs), yesterday, enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to establish a national commission for persons with disabilities.

The group also asked the Senator Bukola Saraki-led National Assembly to make budgetary provision for the proposed commission in the 2019 budget.

Chairman, Board of Trustees of the foundation, Senator Osita Izunaso, who met with PWDs from across the country in Abuja, applauded Buhari for signing into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Bill, 2018 passed by the National Assembly.

Izunaso, who is angling to return to the Senate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), noted that it behoves Buhari to match his words with action with the establishment of the commission on PWDs in line with the provision of the PWD Act.

Stating that it was heartwarming to note that Nigeria has finally domesticated the bill on PWDs in line with the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol, on March 30, 2007 and September 24, 2010, he stressed the need to set aside seed money for the take-off of the commission this year.

He argued that the proposed commission would facilitate the provision of basic facilities like rack, hearing aids, signs and interpreters required by no fewer than 20 million PWDs in public buildings and functions across the country once it is established.

Applauding the governments of Plateau, Lagos, and Nasarawa states for passage of the bill, he called on the remaining 33 states’ governments to follow suit.

He also lauded national assembly leaders, as well as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; the Special Adviser to the President on Persons with Disabilities, Dr. Sam Ankeli, among others over their roles in the passage of the bill.