Buhari asked to fulfill campaign promise by signing disability bill

The Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CDD) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfill a campaign promise he made by giving assent to the disability bill.

Recently, the national assembly transmitted the bill to the presidency for assent. Before then, the national assembly had passed the bill four times but it was never assented to.

Speaking with journalists on Friday in Abuja, David Anyaele, executive director of CDD, said though the president has tried his best to support people with disabilities, a legal framework would achieve more for them.

Anyaele said the refusal of previous administrations to sign the bill was a result of “sheer ignorance”.

“During the campaign, he (Buhari) said he will support the rights of people with disabilities,” he said.

“We are appealing to him to sign the disability bill into law so no one would be left behind. He has tried to support people with disability.

“We went ahead to design a policy brief to highlight the impact of this bill and it should be assented to. It will assist Mr President.”

The executive director said Nigeria has about 25 million people living with disabilities and that keeps increasing because of insurgency and poverty.

“This figure is quite above population of some countries in Africa,” he said.

“It’s noteworthy however that many countries in Africa have disability laws being fully implemented in their countries. Ghana for instance passed disability law in 2006 and established National Council on Person with Disability.

“It is our belief that signing the bill into an act will go a long way to ameliorate the challenges that confront persons with disabilities into equal opportunities like their contemporaries in other countries in Africa.”