General News
Persons with disability want constitution amended
By JIMOH RASAKI
A group, Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD) has called on the two chambers of the National Assembly to amend section 42 of 1999 Constitutions as well as section 57, 52 of Electoral Act of 2006.
National President of the group, Barrister Danlami Bashiru, made this call at a recent event in Lagos to commemorate the 2010 International Womenโs Day with the theme; โEqual rights for Disabled Women in this Democratic Dispensation.โ Specifically, Bashiru lamented that disabled persons, both male and female in Nigeria are faced with four major categories of challenges such as discrimination, exploitation, marginalization and stigmatization.
โWe have a total number of 19 million persons with disability in Nigeria, one million five hundred thousand persons with disability are in Lagos alone, with a population of about 150 million people in Nigeria and 10 million people in Lagos. This implies that 15 per cent of the population of Lagos State and over 12.5 per cent are in this category. No doubt, any nation that does not provide opportunities to engage effectively this huge population and high proportion of its total population is losing.โ
Barrister Bashiru noted that women in this group suffers triple jeopardy, first as a woman, secondly as woman with disabilities and thirdly, they suffer discrimination from fellow women in the society.
He, however, revealed that JONAPWD has inaugurated the womenโs wing of the body in Lagos for disabled women to have a strong voice, speak for themselves, demand for their rights and to provide lasting solution to challenges they faced.
Additional Information
Country: Brunei Darussalam
Website: http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/mar/15/national-15-03-2010-012.htm
Email: N/A
Phone: N/A
Contact Person: N/A
Source: Email from: MORI, Soya
When: 15/3/2010
