Nigeria: 'Disabled Persons Want Desk in All MDG Offices'

Akor Ojoma
Daily Trust
December 3, 2009

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) office in Nigeria has been urged to include a disability desk in all its offices at federal, state and local levels all over the federation.

The call was made by President of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) Barrister Bashir Danlami yesterday to mark the 2009 International Day of Persons With Disabilities (PWD) in Abuja.

He said the MDG cannot be achieved without the inclusion of the needs and participation of persons with disability in its framework.

"Any attack against poverty should start with the disabled because we are the poorest of the poor. Disability remains a major cause of poverty and so the disabled must be empowered in order to remove poverty. "

Women Affairs and Social Development Minister Salamatu Hussain Suleiman said the day is set aside by the United Nations aims to promote an understanding of disability issues, among others.

She said stigmatization and relegation of persons with disabilities still lingers in our society and as such the two houses of the National Assembly have both debated and passed the draft law on the rights of persons with disabilities.

Highlights of the celebration was the presentation of wheel chairs,
hearing aids, tricycles, Braille materials and other appliances to
persons with disabilities by the MTN foundation.

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