Board Member of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities representing South West Zone, Hon. Busuyi Omopariola, has convened a dialogue session with leaders of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities, JONAPWD, disability groups and clusters in Lagos State.
The dialogue session was convened as part of measures to understand issues and challenges being faced by Persons with Disabilities, PWDs in the region and to discuss the plans of the commission to members of the disability community.
PWDs in attendance shared their challenges in the area of education and asked that the Federal Government implements the National policy on Inclusive Education and also convert the policy to a law.
Parts of the demands by members was the need for PWDs in Lagos to have a fair share of all the social intervention programs at the national level and most importantly incorporate women to ensure they are not left out.
Speaking on behalf of other PWDs, the JONAPWD Chairman in Lagos, Dr. Adebukola Adebayo asked that “the commission supports the Lagos State Government to set up early intervention and diagnostic centres for Children with Disabilities.”
He explained that such centre would help to reverse any disability, if possible, at the early stage, stressing that it would reduce the prevalence of disability in the state.
Hon. Omopariola promised to table the various submissions during the commission’s Council meeting with the aim of addressing the issues raised.
He also disclosed that the commission was planning to set up a vocational training centre in the SW as the president is eager to commission projects on disability issues across the country.
Omopariola committed to having regular interaction with leaders of the disability community in the region.
The meeting was attended by executive members of JONAPWD and cluster heads as well as SA on disability to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Barr Abdullahi Idowu.