By Razaq Bamidele
A professional Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Journalists for Democratic Rights, (JODER), has urged all tiers of governments and corporate organizations in the country to pay more attention to the welfare of the People Living with Disabilities (PLWDS), in the society to enable them also live a comfortable life like the rest of other people.
This was part of the decisions reached by the organization at a one-day training programme on reporting people living with disabilities (PLWDS), with the support of the Ford Foundation West Africa Regional Office in Lagos.
The NGO, in a communiqué at the end of the workshop stated that the rights of People Living With Disabilities, (PLWDs) is an important human right issue and democracy and good governance are not complete without equitable focus on their rights, defining their case as “a physical or mental condition that limits an individual’s’ movements, senses, and activities.”
The workshop noted that Children living with disabilities are often denied access to the essentials of life like shelter, education and decent housing which imposes lack of self-esteem on them as they grow up, reminding that, the 2006 National Census indicated that 3,253,169 Nigerians live with disabilities representing some 2.32 per cent of the population as at that time.
It disclosed also that in 2011, a Global Report stated that some 25 million Nigerians live with disabilities out of which 3.6 million face significant difficulties in functioning just as it added that, “as at 2023 in Nigeria, it is believed that there are some 27million people with disabilities.”
The workshop however commended the media for having done a lot in promoting the rights of PLWDs but lamented that the efforts are far from being enough regretting that, “in some media spaces, PLWDs’issues are still considered as less important in the allocation of media space!”
Stories concerning PLWDs are treated as sudden events not as a continuum of serious social and economic crisis that the state itself needs to address, the workshop complained; pointing out that, “sometimes, in some media houses, disability stories are seen as ‘soft’ stories that should be in the backwater of the media spaces;” just as it regretted that, “Media advocacy for PLWDs still remains at its lowest ebb!”
The workshop in fact, indicted the media for not constructively engaging political leaders during election seasons on issues affecting PLWDs. Against the foregoing, the communiqué read in part that:
“The Nigerian Local, State and National Governments should be constructively engaged on socio-economic policies like education, health and housing which affect the essential needs of PLWDs; the media should increase the tempo of the campaign for access to free education and free health for Children living with disabilities;
“Tips on reporting PLWDs should be published and circulated in the print and electronic media across the country;
“Media institutions should further build the capacity of the media to raise issues of Children with disability to national consciousness;
“The media hereby form a National Media network to advance and promote the socio-economic rights of PLWDs in Nigeria.”
The communiqué was jointly signed by Segun Abifarin, David Anyaele, Mrs Bukola George and Adewale Adeoye on behalf of the organizers.
