Official Advocates Disability Law By All States
Technical Assistant to the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, has called on all states to enact disability law without further delay to further protect people with disabilities.
In a statement he issued in Enugu, Iyodo said that more than 32 million Nigerians had one form of disability or the other.
According to him, disability issues are often viewed with “lens of charity which often results in social exclusion and disempowerment of the group”.
He said that persons with disabilities were daily faced with realities of pity and stigma which reduced their access to education, health, employment and others.
He noted that the disability rights movement had been deep-rooted in many countries over the past decade, describing it as a visibility project.
‘’Human dignity is the anchor norm of human rights.
“Each individual is deemed to be of inestimable value and nobody is insignificant.
“People are to be valued not just because they are economically or otherwise useful, but because of their inherent self-worth,” he said.
Iyodo added that persons with disabilities had the same civil and political rights as other human beings.
“Furthermore, such persons are entitled to the measures designed to enable them to become as self-reliant as possible.
‘’The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were adopted on 13 December 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, taking all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities into consideration.”
He said that some states of the federation had adopted disability law, thereby challenging others.
He called on government at all levels to enact law for the protection of persons with disabilities in their domains.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Sam Udekwe is a journalist working in the News and Current Affairs department, Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) Enugu. He is well trained in all genres of journalistic venture.
Mr Sam read Mass Communication, graduating all with Distinction in National Diploma, Higher National Diploma and Postgraduate Diploma at IMT, Enugu and Madonna University, Okija, Anambra state, while he is presently on his M.Sc programme also in Mass Communication, at National Open University of Nigeria.
He is currently the NUJ Chairman, Enugu state.
samowailo@gmail.com
