Nnaya Eziyi, Umuahia
The Executive Director of Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), Mr. David Anyaele has described most federal and state governments’ interventions for physically challenged persons in the country as both inadequate and cosmetic.
Anyaele who stated this while speaking on state of the nation and Nigerians with disability in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, added that the continued exclusion of such persons from the governments’ policies and program aimed at improving their conditions amount to mockery.
He said, “The ongoing Conditional Cash Transfer, N-Power which is a job creation and empowerment program, government Enterprise and Empowerment program (GEEP, and Grown School Feeding are some of the programs of the federal government in which people with disability are not properly captured.”
He applauded the federal government for the initiative of revitalizing 109 Primary Healthcare Centers across the 36 states and the FCT, adding that the programs would improve healthcare delivery in the country.
The chairman, who had his both hands chopped-off by soldiers in Liberia during that country’s civil war and now wears artificial ones, regretted that persons with disabilities are not beneficiaries of services at the centers.
He applauded Abia State Governor, Okezie ikpeazu for the appointment of three special assistants on disability matters, and the ongoing distribution of wheelchairs to physically challenged person during his tour of the local government areas.
According to him, as much as the group appreciates the gesture, it regretted that the appointees have no offices let alone staff to do the job, which he described as a disdainful treatment and a further ridiculing of people with disability.
Anyaele said as a means of empowering the appointees, governments should send them to both local and international training programs to enhance their capacity to respond to needs of other citizens with disability and others.
Commending the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise across the country, he called on people with disability to avail themselves of the opportunity to participate in the election.
“We call in INEC to organize a stakeholder’s forum on disability and elections to clearly identify key areas of INEC election operations and persons with disability to enhance effective participation of eligible citizens with disability in the general elections,” he added.
