Sunday Okobi
Foremost Nigerian human right activist, Dr. Joe
Okei-Odumakin, and other concerned Nigerians yesterday kicked off a campaign to
ensure the full implementation of the Disability Act recently signed into law
by President Muhammadu, as well as project the right of people living with
disability (PWDs).
Odumakin and other activists, who activated the
means to salvage the situation disabled people face in the society during the
official launch of the ‘FollowDisAct’ campaign coined from Follow the
Disability Act on Thursday, said the campaign is to advocate for the inclusion of
PWDs at policy and implementation level of the Act.
The campaign, which is an advocacy project of the
Project Enable Africa (PEA), is to track, report and drive the implementation
of the discrimination against PWD (Prohibition) 2018 bill passed into law in
January.
At the event which took place at the newly
inaugurated Inclusion Hub in Surulere, Lagos, yesterday, the Chairman of the
Board of Directors of Project Enable Africa (PEA), Odumakin, said: “In the last
five years, we have stayed through to our goal which is to promote the right,
empowerment and social inclusion PWD; we have done that by engaging
policymakers and various stakeholders within the community of PWD.”
She added that the group has also been instrumental
to providing direct and indirect empowerment opportunities for the PWD in areas
such as ICT (web design, graphic design, digital business marketing etc.), as
well as vocational, entrepreneurial, digital leadership and advocacy areas.
“As we celebrate our fifth anniversary, we are
inspired to strengthen the advocacy for PWDs with the official launch of the
Inclusion Hub, the first of its kind in Nigeria alongside the #FollowDisAct
campaign.
“The FollowDisAct campaign has been designed as a
five-year campaign project to coordinate a national effort to push for the full
implementation of the discrimination against PWDs (Prohibition) Act,” Odumakin,
who is also the President of Women Arise for Change, said, adding that the Act
is a federal legal frame work that promotes the social inclusion of PWDs across
all sectors and levels in the society.
On his own, the Director and Coordinator of Project
Enable Africa, Mr. Olusola Owonikoko, said the group is expanding to target the
inclusion of PWDs in the society and drive the Act to fruition for the sake of
humanity.
Owonikoko stressed that PEA, as a community
development initiative founded in 2014, is to strongly advocate for the right
and empowerment of PWDs, adding that every Nigerian deserves quality life and
that no one should be discriminated against on the account of their disability.
While highlighting the goals and objectives of the
campaign, the PEA director disclosed that the project has been designed to
monitor, track, report, and drive the implementation of the newly assented
bill.
According to Owonikoko, “The goal of the campaign
is to drive and catalyse the implementation of the newly assented Disability
Act across Nigeria, while monitoring and reporting the progress of the Act and
engaging all stakeholders from the private, public and civil society sectors.
The campaign would be implemented at a national level, across the six
geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
“Our approach is largely community-driven and it
will focus on the community of persons with disabilities, promoting their
understanding of the provisions of the Nigeria Disability Act while also
sensitising the society of the legal framework protecting disability rights in
Nigeria through the mass media.”
Many of the PWDs who graced the occasion, thanked the
group for the project to further their cause in the society, and urged other
groups and individuals to join the cause in order for them to live freely and
happily like others in the society.
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