From Magnus Eze, Abuja
With approximately 28 million persons with disabilities in Nigeria, the Disability Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC) has decried the non-passage of the disability bill that had been before the National Assembly, even as it disclosed that only four states have law on disability in the country.
This was as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Disability Matters, Dr. Samuel Ankeli, has called on the National Assembly to accelerate the passage of the bill to properly cater for the special group in the society.
Executive Director of DRAC, Dr. Irene Ogbogu, who stated this, on Thursday, at an interactive session with the media on violence against women and girls with disabilities, in Abuja.
He named the four states as Lagos, Jigawa, Bauchi and Ekiti, while he claimed the Kwara State governor was yet to assent to the bill.
“There is no disability law at the national level. It came so close during Goodluck Jonathan administration; the bill was lying on his table. We had jamboree at the Eagle Square and at the end of the day, nothing happened.
“We are thinking of sending delegates to the National Assembly to find out the situation now. I don’t understand why things work so slowly in this country. We hope the National Assembly can tell us the situation of the bill, so that we know what to do next. It went there since late last year”, she stated.
Ogbogu maintained that 28 million was a huge population to be ignored, adding that since Nigeria signed the international conventions it must domesticate them with laws on disability.