The All Progressives Congress on Saturday hailed over 25 million Persons with Disabilities for the dignity, achievements and global recognition which their conduct and professional have earned the country.
The party’s PWDs National Leader, Tolu Bankole, in a statement to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, commended the resilience of the people with special needs.
Bankole said beyond the International Day of Observance, the ruling party has not failed to appreciate the exploits of politicians and sportsmen with disabilities, including those making waves in the field of information and communication technology, commerce and academics.
He said, “With about one in every eight Nigerians living with at least one form of disability, most common of these disabilities are visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, intellectual impairment, and communication impairment.
“President Buhari has assented to Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, and other intervention programmes to alleviate the plight of PWDs in Nigeria.
“APC, being a friend to PWDs, has strongly and consistently advocated for their inclusion and improvement of lives, which subsequently led to the free nomination form given out to all PWDs aspirants at all levels in the build-up to the 2022 APC primaries.
“As the leader of PWDs, I personally disbursed grants and empowerment to women and men in different PWDs clusters nationwide to engender financial breds of SSS 3 students to drive home our call for educational inclusion.
“We organised and self-sponsored the first PWDs’ national summit at NICON Hilton Abuja where far reaching resolutions have been forwarded to the appropriate authorities for prompt actions.”
He added that the “Government must champion innovation which will improve access of PWDs to assistive technologies in Nigeria without further delay. We believe that availability and affordability of assistive smart technologies to PWDs will enable them to participate equally and effectively in society with others and face no barriers.”
