By Progress Godfrey
Emerging reports have revealed that out of the 360 seats in the lower chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly; the House of Representatives, only seven of them are being contested for by Persons with Disabilities, PWDs.
According to the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) the number of persons with disabilities contesting as candidates was very low.
The umbrella organization of persons with disability, which was established in Nigeria to promote the rights and development of Nigerians with disabilities called on more persons with disabilities to defy the odds and come out to compete in elections.
The disability group provided the update after the quarterly consultative meeting with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
The group said: “Only seven Persons with Disabilities are contesting for seats in the House of Representatives.
These persons are representing Rivers, Kaduna, Ogun, Ondo, And Imo states.” The Explainer recalls that Jake Peele, Founder of The Albino Foundation, a pro-PWD foundation, while recounting some of the milestones achieved by the PWDs have achieved in recent years, said PWDs would be deploying no fewer than 700 members of their members as electoral observers in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
“We are going to be deploying 700 members of persons with disabilities as observers. We are going to deploy in partnership with INEC, an on-the-spot app that will give us on-the-spot assessment of what is happening in the polling units.
We are also going to deploy members of the community as interns to ensure that we begin to give the opportunity for persons with disabilities to learn from those who are already in the house, so they can be future legislators,” said .
Epelle. Since the advent of Nigeria’s democracy, People living with disabilities have clamoured for inclusion both in voting and in terms of contesting elective offices.
Recently, INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood said at least 19 million Nigerians are estimated to be people with disability out of the 95 million eligible voters to exercise their franchise come 2023 elections.
Mahmood added,“Our emphasis is not just their participation as candidates during elections in particular, but involvement in the election process in general.
“In partnership with the disability community, INEC will continue to promote inclusivity, not in a symbolic way, but in a very practical way.” With 19 million out of 95 million Nigerian voters, it means PWDs own 20 per cent of Nigeria’s total voting strength, it also means well for the 7 candidates contesting for House of Representatives.
The Executive Secretary, National Commission for People with Disability (NCPWD) James Lalu said with what INEC is doing, PWDs are confident they will all get their Permanent voters’ cards.
Lalu noted that the solution to proper inclusion of persons with disabilities in Nigeria is proper participation in the electoral system in Nigeria.
“I understand very clearly, that for over some years, we have been pleading with a particular political party to include persons with disabilities in legislations, their champagne activities and everything about them, we have not been able to achieve that but today, because of the activities of INEC, it has forced them to carry persons with disabilities into their campaign knowing fully well that we have a lot of persons with disabilities with their voters card. Any political party that is not interested in persons with disabilities inclusion, will not see out votes,” Lalu added.
