By Abdulwahab  Abdulah
Governor Raji Fashola, SAN of Lagos State  has called on the Federal Government and other states of the federation to establish laws that will protect the rights of people living with disabilities.

Speaking through the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, Governor Fashola, said it is necessary that other State Governments and indeed the Federal Government take a clue from the Lagos State “Special People’s Law 2011” and do the necessary to ensure its national embrace and implementation.
The speech by the Governor was to commemorate this year International Human Rights day celebrated in Alausa, Ikeja last week.

He said, “It is time to act and create awareness on the rights of people living with disability, they have to be safeguarded against all forms of discrimination and given equal rights and opportunities. To us in Lagos State, this year event is of particular significance. As you may be aware, the theme of this year’s celebration is ‘The Rights of People Living With Disability.’ This is a call for a development of an all-inclusive legal and socio-economic framework to cater for the welfare and well-being of physically challenged individuals in our society.”

He said it is  instructive to note that Lagos State had seen the need to address the challenges being faced by  special people as far back as 2011, by establishing the law to safeguard people living with disability against all forms of discrimination and to equalize their opportunities in all aspects of living in the society.
He said further that prior to the enactment of the Law, the issue of special people was perpetually on the back burner of public policy, where they only attracted attention as a matter of statistics.

“Over the years, successive administrations at various levels of government had played lip service to the subject of special people.   Little attention was paid to the care, concern or needs of this set of people. This is despite the peculiarities of their existence.
“In theory, the Constitution of our great country, to which all of us profess allegiance, accords special people a pride of place. It is unequivocally stated in the Constitution that the State is to direct its policy towards ensuring that provision is made for public assistance in deserving cases or other conditions of need.
“However, the reality on ground appears to point in the contrary direction. If there is an issue that all of us as Nigerians are unanimous about it is the fact that our special people require special consideration. On daily basis, we are assaulted by the sight of adults and children of school age begging on our highways. We all are witnesses to the exploitation of our physically challenged on daily basis.

“It is against the backdrop of the above that the Lagos State Government is using the opportunity of this year’s World Human Rights Day to re-affirm our government’s readiness to continue to uphold the rights of every Lagosian. We believe that no individual is ‘able’ or ‘disabled’ by choice. The choice is beyond all of us. However, how we treat our disabled compatriots is our choice. Our choice in Lagos State is to ensure that no one is discriminated on account of his disability.”