People With Disabilities Give NDDC 14-day Ultimatum On 5% Employment Quota

Joint National Association of People With Disabilities (JONAPWD) in the nine Niger Delta states has given the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) a 14-day ultimatum to implement the five percent employment quota for physically-challenged persons in the region.

The group said it would mobilise its members to occupy the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, if the interventionist agency fails to comply with the quota agreement.

Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday on behalf of the nine state chapters of the association, the Delta State chairman, Ernest Igbuzor, said people with disabilities are the most marginalised people in the Niger Delta region.

Igbuzor said: “This press briefing is not a plea for sympathy, it is a demand for justice, implementation and adaptability. The reality on ground is that persons with disability in the Niger Delta are facing multiple layers of exclusion; poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation, weak infrastructure and systemic neglect.

“While the Niger Delta is rich with resources, persons with disability remain among the poorest and most marginalised in the region. We are excluded from employment opportunities, skill acquisition and empowerment programmes, scholarship and educational support, development planning and decision-making.

“An act of the National Assembly passed in 2018 made it mandatory that five percent employment opportunities in government establishments be reserved for persons with disability.

“Persons with disabilities in the Niger Delta do not want to be known speeches and unimplemented policies, we want to be seen in employment figures, training programmes, scholarship lists and leadership spaces. Development that excludes persons with disability is not development, it is discrimination.

“Today, we use this medium to send a message to the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, to carry out the implemention of the five percent quota employment for persons with disability.

“The Niger Delta Development Commission cannot claim to be making impact in the Niger Delta, when persons with disability are not feeling such impacts. Hence, we are giving a 14-day ultimatum to commence the implemention of our demands. We will be left with no option but to occupy the premises of the NDDC.”