Your Excellency,
Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
President and Commander in Chief,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dear Mr.
President,
AN OPEN LETTER TO GEJ: WHY YOUR TRANSFORMATION AGENDA SHOULD RUB OFF FROM
NOW ON PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY
Good day Mr. President. As the rescheduling of the General Elections
gives you ample opportunity to restrategize, attend to pressing country matters
and at least rest from the task of crisscrossing this vast country I will like
you to please use this opportunity to digest and ponder seriously on the
contents of my second letter to you. The first was before your election into
office in 2011.
I posted it on your FACEBOOK
wall.
Mr. President you have made giant strides indeed and you
have given a fresh breath of transformation in various sectors of our national
life, some of which are being immediately felt and some of which will actually
be felt in years to come. However Mr. President somehow a stratum of the Nigerian
society has been left out. Persons with Disability have never really been
attended to by any Nigerian government or leader frontally since this nation
was birthed. Persons with Disability are in their millions in this country.
I have been an advocate of Persons with Disability not
because I am a person with a physical challenge but because I believe it is the
right thing to do to improve and better the lives of such huge numbers of
Nigerians as a matter of right and conscience. They need to be taken out of the
doldrums and made to have a sense of dignity and belonging.
When I worked in the Media Industry with Africa Independent Television (AIT) and
Ray Power FM Radio as a News Editor, Researcher, Producer and Anchor from 1999
to 2006 I realized that God had given me the opportunity to have a platform to
transform the lives of Nigerians with Disability. I thank my God that I enjoyed the cooperation
and confidence of my then Bosses Tosin
Dokpesi, Pauline Ubudaga and most
especially Chief Raymond Dokpesi.
I
believe Mr. President God is giving you a wonderful once in a life time
opportunity to touch the lives of Nigerians with Disability in a profound and
lasting manner which posterity will recognize.
When in AIT I researched, produced and anchored SPECIAL PEOPLE on AIT and DIFFERENTLY ABLE on Ray Power FM. These
programmes were first of their kind in the history of Nigerian TV or Radio.
Through these programmes a platform was created for Persons with Disability
where we carried out intense advocacy and engagement with relevant stake
holders in our quest to draw attention to the plight of Persons with Disability
and the need to better their lot in a proper, dignified and sustainable manner.
Through these programmes we let the world know that Persons with Disability are
actually able and determined people. Today we have Barrister Danlami Basharu as Nigeria’s representative at the United Nations, and at the botched 2005
National Conference and in the successful 2014 National Conference convened by
your humble self Nigerians with Disability were delegates, these are all the
gains of the silent and determined efforts we put through SPECIAL PEOPLE and
DIFFERENTLY ABLE apart from the sustained media attention we marshalled on
other media outlets.
I believe Mr. President that even before you graciously sign
a comprehensive Bill into an Act to
cover the interest of Persons with Disability in this country you can create
a Ministry of Persons with Disabilities
and Challenges and appoint a substantive Minister who is a Person with Disability to lead the affairs of the
ministry. I also envisage that you will also appoint a Senior Special Assistant on Disability Affairs and finally when the
Bill becomes and Act we will also have as a creation of that Act a National Disability Commission to be
chaired by the Minister of Disability
and Challenges.
The problems of disabilities in this country are enormous
and quite challenging and need to be tackled frontally and holistically in the
same manner actions were taken to solve the problems of Nigeria’s Niger Delta
where we have a Commission, a Ministry and even Special Assistant on Amnesty
implementation. Every day things happen that make able bodied people join the
group of Persons with disability.
Mr. President I am also advocating that persons with
Disability should not be prohibited by commission or omission from being
appointed to serve this country in whatever capacities, whether as Ministers,
Ambassadors etc. We should run an inclusive government and society where equal
opportunities policies are sacrosanct. Now we have a win-win situation with the
appreciable inclusion of women at all levels of governance. This can be done
for Persons with Disability too.
In the United Kingdom, the powerful Home
Office once had a blind man as Secretary
in the person of David Blunket. You
will recall also that America once
had a physically challenged person as her President
in the person of Delano Roosevelt
and he is the only one in U.S.A history to serve 3 terms in office. People with
Disability can do it if tokenism, apathy, discrimination are done away with
and they are engaged on equal basis and given the level playing field to thrive
and be empowered.
Thank you for your attention and I personally look forward
to hearing from you as a concerned citizen and stake holder and I believe this
time around you will be friendly to Nigerians with Disability and take definite
and concrete transformative steps to better our lives from now and leading into
your next administration beyond May 29th, 2015. God bless you
richly. Amen.
Yours Sincerely,
Rufa’i,
Abduyusuf
Tel: 08028782891
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