Group condemns discrimination against PLWDs

The Nigeria National Persons With Disabilities Multipurpose Cooperative Society (NNPWDMCS) has called on Nigerians to stop discriminating against People Living With Disabilities (PLWD) in the society.

President of the group, Taiye Titus Oloye, said disability should not equate with inability, noting that there is ability in every disability.

He therefore urged Nigerians not to discriminate against such persons with disabilities but rather support them. He made the call at a recent workshop organised by the association, titled, ‘Economic Empowerment of the People Living With Disabilities through Cooperatives and Other Community Based Rehabilitation or Poverty Alleviation Programmes, held at GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

Oloye stated that the workshop was part of efforts to empower their members economically. He explained that for persons with disabilities to be economically empowered, they should be encouraged to come together and form cooperatives.

He noted that as governments across the world cut services and withdrew from regulating markets, cooperatives are being considered useful mechanisms to manage risks for people with disabilities and keep markets efficient.

He said the task of carrying disability along in the society is the collective responsibility of individuals, government and cooperate organisations.

He said: “We appeal to the government not to relent in the efforts to better the lives of people living with disability because there is a saying that a tree cannot make a forest.”

A Director in Lagos State, Ministry of Agriculture, Emmanuel Audu, said the state government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, was determined to train people living with disabilities in cultivation of crops and catfish farming, soap making, among others, to change their lives positively.

Audu, who represented the Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms. Abisola Olusanya, added that people living with disabilities were integral members of the state and reside across the communities and local councils.