The Founder of The Albino Foundation (TAF), Mr Jake Epelle has called on Media Professionals to ensure that the activities of Persons With Disabilities PWDs are given optimal coverage during the forthcoming elections.
Mr Epelle made the call in Abuja, at a capacity building workshop on inclusive media reportage for the 2023 general election.
He disclosed that the foundation was planning to launch Election Hub with details of eligible PWD voters, maintained that the support of the media was necessary to achieve such feat.
According to the CEO of TAF, data from the election hub will guide the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on areas to deploy resources and facilities such as braille machines and others that will aid PWDs to vote on election day.
“We are deploying what we call the PWD Election Hub and we are also launching the PWD dashboard to monitor the election process. The dashboard will actually tell you the eligible PWDs who are going to vote in the forthcoming election”.
“We are also launching an app in which the media can use in its reportage. All of these would be formally launched. We are waiting for INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu to give us a date on when it will be launched”. Mr Ekpelle noted.
He explained that PWDs do not participate in the previous elections due to voter apathy. “They are not just interested in getting involved because they do not know the provisions that are available for them to participate effectively and they do not know the process and procedures to follow to participate in the electoral process.”
Mr Ekpelle appealed to journalists to help deepen report and highlight issues affecting PWDs so that policy makers and international partners would be aware of the main challenges the organization was facing.
President Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ, Mr Chris Isiguzo while stating that over 200 journalists have so far been trained on election coverage, advised media professionals to give more attention on the marginalized group.
“Engage more on conflict sensitive reporting, let’s report authentic stories that promotes national peace and development. Nigerian citizens needs us more at this time for credible information on electoral process, we must not fail them”
The Executive Director of International Press Centre, Mr Lanre Arogundade, refreshed the Journalists memory on how to “Report Until Something Happens” (RUSH).
“You must be well informed about the issue before rushing to report, always counter fake news and change societal misconceptions about PWDs”.
In her presentation, Program Manager TAF, Ndifreka Ferdinand, disclosed that the organization intends to mobilize about 700 observers across the country to monitor the election, while over 85,000 PWDs are already registered with INEC for the election.
A Journey Of Rights and Disability Inclusion
A Journey Of Rights and Disability Inclusion Since the end of the Second World War, the global community has been undergoing a period of profound societal change. Civil Rights movements have shaken the foundations of the global order, standing at the heart of social transformation and progressive change for the better part of the last two centuries.This story can be traced, in various ways, to pivotal moments across our historical past. No area of human civilisation has been immune to debates and movements about the rights of individuals and the responsibility of the state, or supreme power, to the citizens who are governed by it.Across age, class, sex, faith, sexuality, and disability, individuals have advocated and fought for the gradual reshaping of their societies into the world we live in today – one aspiring toward a concrete vision of individual liberty, equality before the law, incorruptible justice, and shared prosperity. Yet, the journey has not always been smooth. We may view the past in entirely barbaric terms, and in many ways, we would be right. Still, history shows us that resistance to oppression has always existed. For the simple yet radical idea of human equality, battles were fought, won and lost; wars were waged, and countless lives were sacrificed.As far back as 1100 BCE, records from ancient Egypt suggest the occurrence of organised workers’ strikes. In 287 BCE, in ancient Rome, the dictator (no relation to modern-day dictators, please) Quintus Hortensius, passed the Lex Hortensia, a law which theoretically secured political equality between the ruling Patrician class and the free Plebeian citizens by making all resolutions from the Plebeian Council binding on all Roman citizens. Centuries earlier, Persia, under the infamous Cyrus the Great, issued the Cyrus Cylinder, a declaration often regarded as one of the earliest endorsements of religious freedom. Progress, however, has rarely been swift. It was not until the 1960s – during the height of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement – that disability inclusion began to emerge as a distinct movement with its own pure identity, advocating for a community whose experiences cut across age, class, gender, and culture. Prior to this, early steps toward social protection existed in the US, most notably the Social Security Act of the 1930s, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first U.S. president with a physical disability.Between the 60s and the 90s, Civil Rights took multiple leaps forward around the globe. Across Africa, people reclaimed self-governance after a century of colonial rule. These transformations were marked by deep struggle, highlighted by the deeply divisive racial conflict in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. In Nigeria and throughout the continent, citizens grappled with the profound responsibilities and challenges of independence, democratic self-determination, and governance.Alongside these transformations, other social changes gained momentum worldwide. As gender (sex) rights, religious liberty, and freedom of expression raced forward, the world made enormous progress in the integration of persons with disabilities (PWDs). By the late 90s, the US, Canada, India, and the UK had enacted laws prohibiting discrimination based on disability.The newly formed United Nations played a central role in shaping global disability advocacy with the 1975 UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons. This milestone set the stage for later international frameworks, most notably the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2007, which emphasised not only fundamental rights like the right to accessibility and the right to life, but also focused on the socio-economic foundations that make political rights meaningful.Today, over 100 countries on Earth have enacted and implemented some form of legislation on disability inclusion. Still, the journey continues.Nationwide implementation of accessibility standards, increased participation of persons with disabilities in the workforce, politics, policymaking, and governance, inclusive education systems where children with disabilities and without disabilities learn together safely, and a societal culture that embraces rather than marginalises disability – these, and many others, are the markers of progress that remain ahead of us.On this journey toward true disability inclusion, we at TAF Africa, our donors and partners, and team, are committed to walking every step of the way.