Group to Buhari: Signing disability bill into law before elections shows desperation

The Civil Empowerment & Rule of Law Support Initiative (CERLSI), an advocacy group, has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the disability bill into law, a few weeks to the general election.

Buhari signed the bill discriminating against people living with disabilities (PWLD) into law on Wednesday.

In a statement on Thursday, Bob Etemiku, CERLSI deputy executive director, said the action shows a “desperate gesture without substance”.

He said when Buhari was asked about the bill on live television, he gave the impression that he had not given it any “thorough consideration deserving of an assent and signing into law”.

“Commendable as signing the bill into law is, it remains to be seen if the president can muster the political will to push through the other aspects of the disability law,” the statement read.

“One of such aspects is the recognition that the human brain first is not an organ of sex and as the central control all sensory and extra-sensory nervous systems, discrimination on physical inability should be abhorred.

“People who live with disabilities live normal lives elsewhere, and this is because systems and structures are in place to enable them function and contribute their quota to national development.

“Young people in those climes are employed as volunteers and are paid by the state to assist the PLWDs. Two prime examples of Steve Hawking and Franklin Roosevelt persist.”

The group said the government needs to stop politicising the need of the PLWDs but rather make plans for their empowerment by creating an enabling environment for them.

“Our nation and indeed our politicians must cease playing poker with PLWDs, cease relegating us to the backwaters of society, the economy and all political activity,” the statement read.

“Politicizing the interests and needs of PLWD will not help; rather what would help is first, a massive enlightenment campaign against discrimination against PLWD.

“Second of all, Nigeria must begin to make plans for the empowerment of PLWDs by factoring the creation of an enabling environment into federal and state budgets.”