International Day for Disability: Commission set to showcase potentials

The Executive Secretary of National Commission for Persons with Disability (NCPWD), James Lalu, has said that the  Commission is set to showcase potentials and ability in PWDs come Dec.9, the International Day of Persons with Disability. Lalu disclosed this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja to mark the Day which is celebrated annually on Dec.3.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the theme for the 2021 celebration is “Leadership and Participation of Persons with Disability”.

“The Day is set aside to observe and celebrate PWDs. This year’s celebration is a bit different from that of last year, because the NCPWD was established in 2021 after over two years of back and forth”

“Today, we are in the  commission and it has come to stay. President Muhammadu Buhari is the only president in the history of Nigeria that is disability friendly. The National Summit on Disability will be held on Dec.9 and it is expected to bring together PWDs, government officials, media and relevant stakeholders from across the world to discuss and move the disability community forward”

” We are set to showcase talents and potentials from the community to prove that there is ability in disability. It would be a day that Nigeria would stand still for the disability community,” Lalu said.

The NCPWD boss also explained that his Commission had entered into effective collaboration with the Nigeria Police.

He stressed that the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali, was making efforts to enforce the Disability Act.

“The IG has established a Disability Desk/unit in all Divisions across the federation. Very soon, the police would start training officers to handle activities on the Disability Desk in all Police formations”

” Also, we call on all public building holders at the Federal, state and local council level to stick to the feasibility code in the buildings because the enforcement of accessibility code would begin in the next two years”

“We will ensure that the same ram for accessibility for PWDs across the country. We are also determined to develop a unified sign language to cover the whole country, and also develop our dictionary.”

” As a way of marking the day, we will play Para-Sports. We know how the disability community brought medals for the country, something that those who feel are not disable could not do,” Lalu said. (NAN)