The National President of the Nigerian Association of the Blind (NAB), Isiyaku Adamu Gombe has faulted the non-inclusion of persons with disabilities in President Muhammadu Buhari’s Presidential Committee to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettle internally displaced persons, IDPs, in the North-East.
The Association, in a release made available to newsmen, expressed disappointment in the President’s declaration that only women and children are the worst victims of Boko Haram insurgents.
The Association therefore called on the Buhari-led Federal Government to immediately order the inclusion of the representatives of persons with disabilities in the Presidential Committee to rehabilitate infrastructure and resettle Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) in the North-East in line with the popular saying that “Nothing for us without us.”
According to Isiyaku Adamu, who quoted President Buhari’s statement thus, “in the North-East, what I saw for myself and on those clips is a source of concern for people with conscience. They are mostly women and Children who are orphaned. Some of them don’t even know where they come from. This is a pathetic situation in which the country has found itself…” during a recent visit to him by Women in Politics Forum (WIPF) in the State House Abuja. According to him, that statement does not reflect the true position of what is on ground.
Adamu said, “we have never heard Mr. President or his aides mentioning persons with disabilities as if we were not affected by the crises. In any displacement like that of the North-East, people with Disabilities and their families have the same basic rights as any other person.”
He regretted that “because of invisibility, inaccessibility and marginalization, we often slip through the cracks and are not part of the mainstream response.”
He said according to world report on disabilities by WHO, it is estimated that 15 per cent of people in the developing countries have disabilities which therefore means that if Boko Haram created two million IDPs, at least 300,000 of them would have disabilities. “This justifies the need for an inclusive rehabilitation and resettlement process,” he stressed.
While saluting the courage and determination of the administration in tackling corruption and the recent success recorded in fighting insurgency in the North-East, the statement said “the entire community of blind persons in Nigeria are in support of your ‘slow’ but surely right steps towards addressing the socio-economic challenges of Nigeria.”
