Disabled Nigerians Threaten Obasanjo
Originally published in Houston, Texas, on October 13, 2006, by International Guardian News — Anthony Obi Ogbo, Editor.
Houston, Texas — More than 19 million mentally and physically disabled Nigerians unanimously agreed to engage in war, starting with the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, his administration, and his Party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Nigeria, by filing a class action lawsuit to stop what they called “inhuman treatment” against the handicapped.
According to a memo from the group, “If he continues with his unprofessional, unethical and inhuman misconduct against us, and if he still fails to start addressing our long neglected, ignored and needed, valid, debatable concerns meaningfully, on or before the end of December 2006.”
The group is pressuring the government to sign a bill already passed by the House of Senate and the National Assembly since January 1, 2003, which, according to critics, he has refused to sign into law. Said Chief Eric Ndubueze Ufom, President of the Joint National Association of Nigerians with Disabilities in the Diaspora, USA Chapter, Polio Survivors and Post-Polio Health Associations, and Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities International, Inc (USA):
“The bill will ensure full integration of Nigerians with disability into society and establish a National Commission for Persons with Disability, and vest it with the responsibility for their education, health care and the protection of their social, economic, civil and political rights.”
Ufom, recently returning as a leader of the Nigerian delegates to the historic concluding treaty drafting sessions of the Ad Hoc Committee for a comprehensive international convention on the protection and promotion of the rights and dignity of more than one billion people with disabilities (held August 14–25, 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York), further stated:
“In Nigeria and other African Nations, no wise King or Emir or Oba or Igwe or Obi or Sultan or Chief or President ever engages in a fight with their neglected and abused mentally or physically disabled subjects in their village market square, on a full market day.”
He added that if such a leader ever makes such a mistake and allows that fight to take place, history would vindicate such a leader as heartless. According to him:
“President Olusegun Obasanjo is about to make such history. When in 1976–1979 he ruled Nigeria and voluntarily handed power over to civilian rule in 1979. He was elected president again in 1999 and in 2003, both times with over 60% of the country’s votes.”
When Obasanjo retires by April 2007, he would have spent 8 years in office without any contact with leaders of disabled Nigerians. In 1995, President Obasanjo himself was subjected to “the most cruel and inhuman jail in Nigeria” when he was handed a life sentence by the late military ruler, Dictator General Sani Abacha. Ufom expressed his group’s disappointment about Obasanjo’s neglect of disabled citizens.
He said:
“What saddened and surprised us 19 million disabled Nigerians was that throughout President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and leadership as a military ruler and now as a democratically elected president, he has made no attempt whatsoever to meet with any disabled Nigerian or our leaders. Further, his treatment of Nigerians with disabilities is characterized by isolation, segregation, denial of equal treatment based on fear, ignorance, prejudice, and the denial of public benefits enjoyed by other Nigerians.”
Chief Ufom stated:
“We believe in round table meetings with our leaders. I mean contacts that are more interactive for the purposes of exploring a genuine relationship between Nigerians with disabilities, government and lawmakers.”
He added:
“We believe in building a bond that is fundamentally reciprocal. We want to build a bigger table in a more spacious room. We accept the tension, emotion, conflict and uncertainty that are part of community life. We are prepared to argue, listen, revise our views, and compromise in exchange for respect to our disabilities and human dignity and willingness to compromise from our President Olusegun Obasanjo, his administration and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And they must comply with our demand for proper attention.” Chief Ufom further commended Ambassador Aminu Ba Wali, Dr. Chijioke Wigwe, the Nigerian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, members of the International Disability Caucus (IDC) and International Disability Alliance (IDA) delegates, Rehabilitation International (RI), Disabled Peoples International (DPI), United States International Council on Disability (USICD), Disability Rights Education and Defense Funds (DREDF), non-governmental representatives, and civil society for their successful contributions and hard work invested in drafting the historic agreement reached on a new treaty on the rights of more than one billion people with disabilities around the world, on August 25, 2006 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.