A community of Persons Living With Disability (PLWD) have expressed their concerns and challenges at the British Council’s Africa’s Super Women Series, still in celebration of International Women’s Month.
A Cerebral Palsy warrior, author and Chief Responsibility Officer (CRO) of Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn (LetCPKidsLearn) Foundation, Tobiloba Ajayi noted that there are a lot of odds that are against Persons Living With Disability in Nigeria.
Ajayi added that it gets worse when the person is a female saying,’’ There is a lack of accessibility to transport myself. Nigeria’s transportation system does not have a proper plan for persons living with disability. In the workplace, we are stigmatized and what the employers don’t know is that we can do better intellectually sometimes what able bodies person can do. Stereotypes can be overcome through proper education.”
Managing director, chief executive officer of Background Check International who is a polio survivor shared his story of how at age eight, he had an encounter that made him not to make people feel sorry for himself.
“I grew up battling polio which initially affected my two legs in 1967. An encounter in the village when I was eight years old emboldened the ‘Can Do Spirit’ in me when I had to run briskly from masquerade like others and I cried my heart out. Since then, I have grown to become an employer owning my firm. I encourage anyone with a disability to dream and live his or her life as impossibility is nothing if you can think it through. To support PLWD as I am, I ensured they were employed and given a level playing field as I have five of them including me at ‘Background Check International’.
Other stakeholders and persons spoke on the need to give life to the Nigerian Disability Act and the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018.
