Group wants Ministry for PLWD

The Association of the Physically Challenged Persons in Niger, has called on the State Government to establish a ministry for the people living with disabilities in 2017.

The Chairman, Spinal Cord Injury Association, Niger chapter, Mallam Usman Kogo‎, made this call in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday in Minna.

‎‎Kogo recalled that the bill to this effect had been passed into law at the 7th Assembly but nothing had yet to be done to implement the content of the bill.

‎”We are everywhere in the streets begging for alms because nobody is taking care of us, even for our children in public schools, we can’t pay the PTA levies,’’ he said.

Kogo said most of them at the rehabilitation home were educated up to NCE, ND levels, adding that government was not willing to employ them.

‎Similarly, Mallam Mohammed Manga, a member of the association faulted the creation of a task force, chasing them away from street begging, saying: ”we are deprived ‎and marginalised”.

‎”Begging is the only option some of us have because we are not employed in spite ‎of our qualifications.

‎”Other people, who are infected with HIV/AIDS, are working in government offices and are well recognised but here, we are ‎relegated and neglected”.

‎Manga, however, urged the government to look into their cases with sympathy and help put smiles on their faces in 2017, as they desired to live a good life.

‎”The government of today clamours for change, let the change start from the physically challenged and we will ‎feel we are carried along,’’ he said