Three civil society organisations for persosns with disability in Bauchi State have called on the state government to do the needful to domesticate the act prohibiting descrimination against persosn living with disablities in the state.
Speaking separately at an interactive session with the Director of National Orientation Agency Bauchi Office, Asma’u Yahaya, Spokesperson of Women With Disability Intergrity Development Initiative Bauchi, said domesticating the bill in the state can go along way in engendering new sense of belonging to the people living with disablities in the state.
She said, “We want the agency to facilitate the domestication of the act in Bauchi State so that people with special needs will have equal education, health care services and other government interventions access right inforce.”
Comrade Abubakar Abdulahi representive of the National Association Of Bauchi State Special Needs Students solicitated for grants and allowances for persons with disablities currently in school to give easy access to some of their learning materials without which learning will be difficult for them.
“We have been left behind, although we have been advocating for years on how to see our inclusion and esnure we have access to education.
“We have been amplifying our voices to the state and federal governments to make education readily affordable for persons with special needs at all levels. Today, we want to beg the intervention of NOA to help us send the message to all concerned authorities especially our able Governor Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed to declare free education for all persons with disability in the state,” he appealed.
Speaking for Agency for Persons With Disability, N’bawa Sani said called for more conserted efforts in the areas of employment for persons with special needs to make them become selfreliant.
She said, “people with disability can be train on some skills that will make them not to live in their house or beg but to serve the society in a productive way. There are educated persons with disabilities who have acquired certificates but are not doing anything.
Responding, State Director of National Orientation Agency NOA Nuru Yusuf Kobi said they had a kind of agreement with relevant authorities national level to include them in all helm of affairs in the country as contained in the Act.
He said, “Part of what we have agreed is to sensitise people on the inclusion of all persons with disability in the helm of affairs of this country, this ranges from education to healthcare and all sorts of political affairs without any form of discrimination”.
President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Discrimination Against Persons With Disability Prohibition Act (2018) into law in January 2019 after nine years of relentless advocacy by disability rights groups and activists. However, many States including Bauchi are yet to domesticate it
