A one-time Vice President, Joint National Association of Person with Disability, (JONAPWD) and the association’s Public Relation Officer, (PRO) Mohammed Rilwan has expressed worries over the delay in passing the long awaited bill concerning the creation of the ministry for the persons with disability. The bill which he said has been laying fallow at the national assembly is overdue. He therefore called on the government and all concerned to revisit and speed up the bill. The passage of this bill he sees as a stepping stone towards solving the problem of marginalization.

In this interview with Zainab Tanimu of Top Celebrities Magazine, the focused and easy-going spokesman of the group opens up on their dreams

There has been agitation for the creation of your ministry and I know you to be at the forefront of this call. What is the present situation now?

Well, there is no news up to this present time I am speaking with you on the issue of creating a ministry for people with disability. Our bill has been hanging at the national house of assembly/the presidency. We don’t actually know the true position of the bill.

Can you throw more light on this bill issue?

The bill has to do with the creation of commission and protection of the rights of persons with disability but unfortunately since the inception of democracy, that bill has been going from the national assembly to presidency. As I am talking to you now, people with disability in Nigeria do not know the true position of that bill.

Of what relevance is the bill?

You see, the rights of people with disability have been marginalized in all aspects of life. People with disability are not carried along in national and state issues. Why, because there is no law protecting the rights of persons with disability. Also, no specific agency or ministry that is taking care of persons with disability. You see, with the creation of women affairs, women issues have been empowered, the men too have been recognized from state to federal level that is why we feel that once we have a commission or ministry on ground our issues would be properly taken care of. This is the reason why we are seriously agitating for ministry or commission for persons with disability.

On the issue of empowerment, I am aware that some of you are being empowered. The worrisome part of it is that many of you are still found on the street. Why?

If you want to empower people with disability just as the government is doing, which we appreciate. It is not enough to empower them with N10,000 because their situation cannot be compared with those who are physically okay. If they are given N10,000 then that of people with disability should be about N100 thousand and above to be able to establish a business that could sustain them and their families. This explains why you still find them on the street. Is not that they enjoy being on the street. We are calling on the well-to-do Nigerians to please assist us. Pastor Buru is one man who has the love of people with disability at heart. During celebrations he comes to celebrate with us which gives us that sense of belonging. We really appreciate it.

How do you make your votes count during election?

We are as important as any other Nigerian but one of the challenges we have is that INEC has not made proper provisions for all the persons with disability to cast their votes. For instance the blind, the amputated ones and those affected by leprosy are not properly taken care of to cast their votes. You see, like in other African countries when there is election they make provision for on-brail ballot paper which would guarantee a blind man to go directly to vote without anybody assisting him/her. I witnessed one issue whereby a blind man seek for the assistance of his wife who is not blind. These two happened to be supporting different candidates. In this situation it is likely that the wife would vote for a candidate he doesn’t want. So if the ballot paper is printed on-brail paper, the blind man would just go direct and cast his vote without any problem. Though we have made our case known to INEC who pleaded with us that in subsequent elections, they would be able to make provisions for their ballot papers. That anyway, would not stop us from exercising our rights as Nigerians.