2011: PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES SEEK INVOLVEMENT

Persons with disability in the country have urged the Federal Government to ensure that they are accommodated in the processes leading to the 2011 general elections.

They demanded that the Federal Government should mandate the Independent National Electoral Commission to put in place machinery that would facilitate their full participation in next year’s poll like every other able bodied Nigerian.

This was stated in a communique issued in Kaduna at the end of the National Executive Council meeting of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities in Nigeria and made available to newsmen.

The JONAPWD communique, jointly signed by its President, Danlami Basharu, and other council members commended President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing Prof. Attahiru Jega as the INEC chairman but demanded that disabled persons in the country should be brought into the mainstream of the nation’s electoral processes.

The association also urged Jonathan to sign the National Disability Bill into law without further delay.

It further expressed dismay over the absence of sign language interpretation on the network news and other national programmes of the Nigerian Television Authority, demanding that the National Broadcasting Commission and the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication mandated all visual electronic media houses to commence sign language interpretation without any conditions attached.

The JONAPWD also urged state governors to appoint only disabled persons as their special advisers on disability matters.