By James Ogunnaike, Abeokuta

Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) in Ogun State, have called on the State government to take urgent and practical steps to address long-standing legislative and infrastructural gaps affecting their members’ rights and dignity.

They equally called for the immediate re-enactment and gazetting of the Ogun State Disability Law, saying that all amendments agreed upon during a multi-stakeholder workshop must be formally adopted to ensure the law is “relevant, implementable, realistic and aligned with national and global standards,” including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the African Disability Protocol.

Speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, Abdulwahab Matepo, Interim National President of the Spinal Cord Injuries Association of Nigeria (SCIAN), called for the establishment and activation of the Ogun State Disability Commission, a body, he said is essential to giving meaning to every promise made to the disability community, stressing that the commission must not exist only in name, but be legally constituted, adequately funded, properly staffed, and fully operational.

While advocating for a dedicated budget line for disability affairs in the 2026 Appropriation Bill, Matepo argued that without a clear and protected funding allocation, disability inclusion will remain merely a political slogan, depriving PWDs of essential services and support.

Matepo said, PWDs across multiple clusters; including the blind, the deaf, persons with albinism, those with physical disabilities, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and survivors of spinal cord injury, have endured years of exclusion despite existing legal protections.

He said, “in 2017, former Governor Ibikunle Amosun signed the Ogun State Disability Law, a legislation intended to safeguard the dignity and rights of PWDs, but the law was never gazetted nor made operational, and that the Dapo Abiodun-led administration has yet to rectify the situation despite having less than two years left in office”.

“Every year, we are told to exercise patience, yet daily we continue to face discrimination, exclusion and indignity,” stressing that the prolonged delay has effectively denied more than 15 percent of the state’s population their rights.

“In January 2025, the disability community convened a two-day review workshop in Abeokuta, bringing together representatives from all disability clusters and major Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs); facilitated by a legal and disability development expert, the meeting identified key gaps in the 2017 law; particularly the lack of a Disability Commission and the impracticality of mandating minimum wage for all PWDs regardless of employment status.

“Following the review, we submitted proposed amendments and constructive recommendations to the government”.

“All stakeholders expressed support and made verbal commitments to act on the recommendations. However, we have not seen meaningful steps toward implementation, prompting growing frustration.

Matepo described the non-implementation of the disability law as both a governance failure and a human rights concern, urging the governor to ensure that the State does not remain among the few Nigerian states without operational disability legislation, stressing that disability rights cannot remain “on queue”, but requires immediate legislative action.