Persons with
Disabilities (PWD), a group of Nigerians living with various forms of
disabilities, have appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to assent to
the Nigeria Disability Bill before the end of his present tenure.
Patrick Adie, the
South South Coordinator of the group, made the appeal in an interview
with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
The bill which was passed and harmonised by both chambers of the National Assembly in 2010, is awaiting presidential assent.
Mr Adie said: “We have been calling on our president because he is our only hope for now.
We have been
calling on him to assent to our bill because without the bill, all our
efforts in the past years to come up with this bill will be in vain.
“Our appeal is that
he should please consider us. The only way that he can reach every
person with disability in this country is to assent to our bill before
May 29.
“My appeal on
behalf of everyone with disability is that, please, Mr President,
assent to our bill. That is the only way you can pay us for supporting
you.” Mr Adie claimed that the different rallies staged by persons with
disabilities in different states in the South South zone, accounted for
a good number of votes for the president.
He said a campaign
group called “Persons with Disabilities Movement for President Goodluck
Jonathan 2011” was formed to gain support for Mr Jonathan’s re-election.
Campaigning for Jonathan
He added that the
group’s campaign rallies which were the first set of rallies for Mr
Jonathan in Calabar, its headquarters, spurred even the “able” persons
to vote.
He said: “the
turnout of persons with disability during this election to vote Mr
President was historical. By that, he should know that we have a lot of
expectations from him.
“Some of them that have never come up in a very long time, were struggling to queue up.
“I believe the
reason why Cross River State got 100 percent votes for President
Jonathan should be as a result of the rally that persons with
disabilities staged here in Calabar.” Mr Adie said the association also
monitored the treatment of its members across the South South states to
ensure that they were not marginalised.
He noted that the reports from each of the state proved that
persons with disabilities were well treated and “we came out en-masse
to vote for the president.” “So we are also calling on him to remember
us. And the only way he can compensate us for coming together and
pulling our resources, and our time in his support is to assent to our
bill,” he said.
