Calls for the domestication of disability act and the establishment of Commission for Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in Taraba state, have began to gain momentum.
The call which first came from the leadership of the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations, led by its state chairman, Joseph Gimba, as noticed by our state correspondent, yesterday received a boost from the Advocacy for Disability Act Cluster (ADAC).
Led by the Executive Director, Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), Grace Jerry, ADAC, alongside the state chapter of the Joints Association of Persons With Disabilities converged in the state for their Stakeholders’ Consultative Forum Meeting, beckoned at the incoming governor of the state, Agbu Kefas, to leave no stone unturned in fighting discrimination against persons with disabilities.
To actualize this, they said the incoming governor should not hesitate in domesticating the disability act, which they believed would give voice to PWD in the state.
They also requested the establishment of a Commission, appointing PWD to preside over the affairs of the Commission as Executive Secretary and allowing the majority of the staff of the Commission to be PWD.
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They vowed not to backtrack until the bill is made available to the State House of Assembly and domesticated in the state.
Citing the case of Abia state where the bill has been signed into law and a Commission established for PWD in the state, the need for the incoming governor of Taraba, to tread the same path they believed has become necessary.
Grace, who went ahead to cite the United Nations statistics which estimate 15% of the world’s population to be PWDs, affirmed that “there are over 30 million persons in Nigeria who have one form of disability or the other.”
With the aforementioned estimates, Taraba State, as made known by her “has 541,470 persons who have one form of disability or the other considering the population of over 3,609,800.
She also beckoned to media practitioners, to join forces with the group to mountain pressure on the incoming administration, to give the much-needed recognition to PWD.
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