The executive secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD), James Lalu, on Thursday advocated legislation that would reserve five percent job opportunity for People With Disabilities (PWD).
According to him, no fewer than 31.5 million Nigerians are living with one form of disabilities or another and facing discrimination.
Among these, he said, were 700 ex-military personnel, who had their limbs amputated and eventually dismissed from service due to the Boko Haram insurgence.
Lalu spoke when he appeared before the Senate committee on special duties, chaired by Yusuf Yusuf, a senator representing Taraba Central, while defending the 2021 budget.
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According to him, every day, one person gets amputated in Nigeria and becomes disabled due to auto accidents, terrorist attacks or violence. Lalu said the commission established in August was pursuing 10 percent inclusion in government’s policies implementation.
He pleaded for an upward review of the commission’s budget to meet with the increasing demand of its capital budget.
Lalu said: “Recently, we have to integrate about 700 ex-military personnel, who had their limbs amputated and eventually dismissed from the service due to the Boko Haram insurgent.
“We have to provide artificial limbs for them to ensure they are reintegrated back to society and live a normal life.”
Lalu noted that disability was no more a charity issue but had become a developmental issue and needed to be properly tackled to reduce the burden on the government.
He stated that giving out stipends to the PWD would not bring a lasting solution as the people won’t be able to fend themselves after exhausting their welfare packages.
He said the government needed to intervene in the provision of prosthetics, hearing aids and other devices, which could aid the people to fend for themselves.
He regretted that many Nigerians had become liabilities because they were restricted from going to school by reasons of inability to move and hearing or visual problems.
“In some communities, they carry disabled persons and lock them. Some families feel that any one that is disabled in their family is an embarrassment to them.
“It is our plan that if our budget is considered, we are going to have these offices in 2021 so that immediately we have these offices, they will start reaching out to our people.”
Lalu said the commission hoped to take care of education, healthcare needs and livelihood of people with disabilities, pointing out that a lot of disabled persons took to begging on the streets when they could not meet their basic needs.
“Our brothers and sisters with disability in the Northeast, the thing they are facing is not an easy thing. Today, our military is suffering in that area. So many soldiers were amputated. I think we got a number of over 700 of them that got amputation. Some of them were dismissed from their work because of this amputation.
“We are expected to provide support for them so they can be able to walk fit and go back to their work. Dismissing them automatically is abusing their rights as persons with a disability because they need to be protected.”
Lalu added that the NCPD planned to open up zonal, states, and local government offices in order to reach out to 90 percent of its members living in the rural areas.
