Disability Bill Scales Through Second Reading In Senate

ABUJA, February 05, (THEWILL) - The Senate on Tuesday pushed through a Bill for an Act to ensure full integration of Persons With Disability (PWD) into the society beyond the crucial second reading.

Also, Senators backed the establishment of a National Commission for PWDs, vesting it with the responsibilities for the education, health care and the protection of the social, economic, civil rights of PWDs.. The Bill's sponsor, Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman (Kogi/PDP). proposed N161,232,050.32 to take care of overhead costs, recurrent and capital expenditure of the proposed National Commission for PWDs.

Since 1999, several attempts to produce the Disability Bill targeted at 22.5 million Nigerian PWDs have not been successful with the last attempt failing to receive presidential assent after passage by both arms of the National Assembly.

The Bill's sponsor, who described PWDs as Nigeria's largest minority group, in his lead debates said without the necessary legal framework/legislation, the challenges PWDs encounter will be difficult to overcome.

In part, the Disability Bill if passed into law will completely outlaw the discrimination against PWDs on grounds of disability in the areas of employment, housing, transportation and similar spheres. Also, the Bill will compel the construction of PWD-friendly public buildings and infrastructure.

"The accessibility of public buildings is a sore-point in the lives of people living with disabilities, particularly wheel chair users. This Bill seeks to provide solution and ensure that public physical structures, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as well as other public facilities are wheel-chair compliant/wheel-chair accessible." Abatemi-Usman stated at Tuesday's plenary.

The Senators overwhelmingly supported the bill echoing that the inability of Nigeria to produce a Disability Bill since 1999 presented a "moral burden" to the country.

Senate President, David Mark called for quick passage and eventual presidential assent of the Bill in the "earliest possible time".

Mark recalled the medal exploits of Nigerian Paralympians at the London 2012 summer Olympics.

"We are witnesses to the fact that but for the paralympians, Nigeria would have been thoroughly embarrassed." Mark said.

Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos/ACN) called for the inclusion of a disability policy in President Goodluck Jonathan's Transformation Agenda.