2019: Good days ahead for persons with disability

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is committed to deepening and expanding the participation of Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the electoral process, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed in Abuja recently.

 Yakubu, who spoke at the public presentation of a report titled, ‘Disability Votes Matter’ by Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), emphasised that INEC was doing everything within its mandate to ensure the participation of all citizens in the electoral process irrespective of physical or mental disability.

 He said as part of the preparations for the 2019 general elections, the commission had been developing a disability framework to make electoral services more accessible to PWDs, adding that a disability policy had been drafted while all consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders had been concluded. 

 The policy, he said, was aimed at designing layouts of polling stations to make them more accessible to PWDs; procuring magnifying glasses, tactile stickers for ballot boxes, large grip pens and other materials that would assist persons with disabilities; as well as making voting cubicles/booths more accessible to wheelchair-users.

 In a related development, the Executive Director, Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), David Anyaele, has lamented the delay in the passage of the Nigeria Disability Bill.

He, therefore, appealed to the National Assembly to hasten up the process.

Anyaele stated this when he paid a courtesy call on the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Suleiman Nazif, where he said the passage of the bill would end discrimination and harmful practices against persons with disabilities.

Daily Trust reports that the bill, which was passed by both chambers of the National Assembly in 2016, was yet to be harmonised and transmitted to the president for assent.

Source .Daily Trust