By BARTHOLOMEW MADUKWE

People living with disability, PWD, have tasked the Lagos state government over implementation of Lagos State Special People’s Law during a two-day workshop aimed at fashioning out a better programme for people with disability in the State.

Speaking at the workshop that took place in Ikeja, representative of Department for International Development (DFID), Felix Obanubi, who is also the Lagos team leader of State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI) expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the workshop and the level of participation of members of the Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs, LASODA.

According to him, “the joy of it is that the process has made them (PWD)  internalize the mandate that establish them. Not only that, they can see the correlation of the mandate, the vision, the mission, the core value and from there they were able to also define the issue from the mandate.”

Obanubi pointed out that the workshop was also to enable people living with disability in Lagos come up with strategies of engagement, saying “and then at the end of the day, we were able to come up with strategies of engagement, which I know that by the time we finish the circle of the training, we would make the implementation and fashion out a programme that will lead to the implementation of the law very soon.”

Chairman Governing Board of LASODA, Mrs. Tolulope Animashaun praised the organizers and pledged the commitment of the agency towards Lagos Civil Society Disability Policy Partnership (LCSDPP), stressing that the board would ensure that the Lagos State Special People’s Law  was properly implemented.

“My office should be able to make things better for people living with disability because they have the same right as everybody else. They have a right to education, health care and the right to access public loading like everybody else. And because of this, offenders have to be prosecuted” Animashaun added.

Describing the workshop as being very helpful, she noted that the aim was to help LASODA clarify their goals and outline a plan of action.

General Coordinator of LCSDPP, Barth Uche Ekugun said the workshop was put in place as one of the capacity building processes to further empower the board members of LASODA to discharge their responsibilities with sense of focus.

“We feel as a stakeholder in the affairs of persons living with disability in the country, we should contribute our own quota to ensure that the office of LASODA  functions effectively as envisaged by Lagos State Government. We are much concerned about the eagerness and systematic implementation of policies and their mandate as provided for in the 2011 Lagos State Special People’s Law” he said.

One of the participants in the workshop, Mr Bada Oladipupo, a lawyer,  applauded the State government for taking another step in implementing the Law, noting that it was a landslide action.

He said that the workshop has enabled people with disability in the State to have a full grasp of the nitty-gritty of the mandate, towards making Lagos a new place of hope for people with disability.

“I consider it a right step in the right direction. It is a thing we are all clamoring for and as a stakeholder we have been agitating for it. Once again, I consider it a breakthrough, a landslide action by Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) for taking another bold step towards implementing this particular law, which the Federal Government has not even considered” he added.