Abuja: Festus Yakubu, President of Original Inhabitants with Disabilities of the FCT, has made a bold call for equity and inclusion, emphasising the urgent need to empower persons with disabilities as a foundational step toward building a genuinely inclusive society.
Yakubu, who said this at a capacity-building workshop organised by the group in Abuja on Saturday, noted that the community was deprived of its right to contribute to society’s growth.
He, therefore, sought empowerment programmes, such as skills acquisition and vocational training, to enable persons with disabilities to earn a living.
The event was organised in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation for a gender-sensitive training and mentorship programme that catered to the needs of girls/women and Boys/Men with disabilities in the FCT.
“Original Inhabitants with Disabilities are educated, and we have a problem of not being given jobs, and now we are crying out to the FCT Administration.
“We, the Original Inhabitants with Disabilities of the FCT, don’t believe in roaming about the streets, you know, in terms of begging for help.
“We have many skills like shoemaking, tailoring, bag making, and so on. You can learn something with your hands or with your head so that you can affect your life positively instead of roaming about the streets,” he said.
He emphasised the need for inclusive policies and decision-making processes that involve persons with disabilities in the FCT Administration.
Also, Mube Awala, a Disability Advocate and Executive Director of the Immigrants Foundation for Women and Children with Disabilities, emphasised the importance of building the capacity of persons with disabilities to know and own their rights.
He said the training aimed to shift their mindset from self-pity and dependence on others to taking responsibility for their lives.
“We are building their capacity to know, to shift them, do a major shift from what they know as self-pity, reliance on people, depending on government, to own and take responsibility for building their own self-capacity as right holders and to earn a living,” he said.
A Participant, Justina Kennett, a visually impaired special educator, who faced the challenge of accessing public spaces and required accommodations like braille materials and accessible computers, emphasised the need for job opportunities for them.
“They said we should go to school and not beg, but I have tried my best to go through the four walls of school.
“If I am given a job, I will be able to deliver. Be it teaching, be it in a rehabilitation centre, because as a special educator, I can also work even in the hospital as a counsellor for persons with disability,” she said.
