By Lanre Oloyede
Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities, Hon Mohammed Abba Isa, has advocated for a disability-friendly environment that will enable Persons With Disabilities, PWDs, to excel with their God-given talents.
Hon. Abba Isa, who stated this in an exclusive interview the Beyond Disability Project crew, noted that there’s a lot of potentialities in Persons With Disabilities but only need an enabling environment to thrive.
The SSAP explained that PWDs are faced with different challenges that require different approaches and interventions, noting that while some can’t see, others can’t walk or hear.
“They are very brilliant and have a lot of potentialities but we need to create an enabling environment for them to thrive,” he said.
The Senior Presidential aide highlighted some of the challenges PWDs face to include Attitudinal/Behavioral Barriers communication barriers and institutional barriers
“Attitudinal/Behavioral Barriers: One of the greatest barriers to PWDs is the attitude of people towards them. There’s need for the society to change their behavior and the way they see PWDs.
“Communication Barriers: For instance, the deaf need assistive devices for them to communicate without this they are excluded from the conversation,” the presidential aide explained.
The SSAP further stated that this was why Mr President in his wisdom appointed him into this office and mandated to him to create avenues of opportunities for the inculcation of disability requirements and perspectives in the policies, plans and programs of MDAs and sub-national authorities.
“In the last six months in office, we have introduced several reforms, we have done many programs to address these barriers and challenges. One of such numerous programs is this collaboration with the Beyond Disabilities Project.
“Very soon we are planning to have inter-Ministerial and Sub-national Awareness Summit where all MDAs and partners will converge to have robust conversations and engagement on how to advance the cause of implementing the National Disability Act,” the SSAP stated.
Speaking on what Government of President Tinubu intend to achieve with the National Disability Act, he said the law is a Golden law, it is a legal framework that safeguard the right and welfare of PWDs. He added that the law encompasses access to education, welfare, quality healthcare, political participation, business inclusion etc.
The presidential aide added that though there are areas that needed to be strengthened in the law, “we have identified these areas and there is a review of the law ongoing at the National Assembly.
“The law has really protected PWDs but we need to create more awareness on the Act because people who discriminate against PWDs do hide under the guise of not being aware of the existence of the law and ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
“We are in the process of engaging minister of information on the need for the Ministry to take the lead in creating awareness.”
On the issue of taskforce for the implementation of the National Disability Act, the SSAP said the President will soon launch this taskforce.
On his expectations for the Beyond Disability Project, the presidential aide said “we expect a lot, we expect to build our strength together through synergy, and I appreciate the management of Beyond Disability Project for the tremendous job they are doing.”
On his advice to Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria, Hon. Abba Isa said: “I have a lot of hope for the 35 million PWDs in Nigeria. We have made significant progress, we can achieve more. Before, we didn’t have National Commission for Persons With Disabilities, NCPWD, before we didn’t have an SSA to the President but today we have all these. President Tinubu has shown tremendous commitment. I want us to have unity of purpose. We need to unite and love one another. We have all it takes to succeed. We cannot succeed if we are not united.”
