Disability Association Calls For Inclusive Response To COVID 19 Pandemic

The Lagos State Chairman of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPD), Dr. Adebukola Adebayo has called on the government to implement factor in the needs of people living with disabilities (PWDs) in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adebayo who made the call in an audio broadcast called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to lead the process of designing strategies, which would prevent the exclusion of PWDs from the government’s humanitarian response. The activist noted that as a vulnerable group, PWDs would have to be specially targeted by the government to prevent their exclusion from government’s intervention.
According to him, with the pandemic spreading across the state, many PWDs would be affected because of their pre-existing conditions. Adebayo noted that due to the burdens imposed by pre-existing conditions such as polio and spinal cord injuries, government’s response would have to be sensitive to the plight of such citizens.
He said: “PWDs all have a pre-existing health condition and this makes them vulnerable to Covid-19 if not properly attended to. As such, PWDs should be given attention like other vulnerable groups such as the aged, pregnant women and others. The disability advocate lamented that the Covid-19 intervention in Nigeria particularly in Lagos state which has been the epic center has not been sensitive about the needs of PWDs.
He said: “There has not been any sensitivity shown towards PWDs from the way information on Covid-19 is be designed, produced and disseminated. Person with disabilities have been completely excommunicated and excluded from this whole process. If there is no preventive intervention targeting PWDs as a group, they could be the conduit pipe for spreading Covid-19.”
It would be recalled that as part of its humanitarian response to contain the spread of the novel Corona Virus, the Lagos State Government on March 27 set up a food intervention programme to reach out to the indigent and the most vulnerable in the society. The intervention is meant to cater for 200,000 households across 377 wards in Lagos during the lockdown being enforced to curb the spread of the deadly virus. While many Nigerians have praised the response of the Lagos State Government, laudable initiatives such as the provision of food to vulnerable households have been dogged by gaps and implementation constraints.
Adebayo advised that the government could better reach PWDs if it uses the principle of distributive justice such as allocating specific percentages to PWDs. He said: “There is nothing wrong if for instance the 15 to 20 percent of the food, which is for about 200,000 household is set aside for people with disabilities. That means you could distribute 500 plus per LG Or you can say a certain percentage of this food should be devoted to persons with disabilities or the government can colour code the items to indicate, which portion belongs to PWDs.
“So we are calling the government and other relevant agencies again to rethink the process of this Covid-19 intervention such that it provides for PWDs who are most vulnerable,” he concluded.

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