By Our Correspondent <\/p>\n
If bandits, terrorists or kidnappers come to your community and everybody has to scamper for safety with some seeking hideouts in the bush, and others running to only God knows where; what will be the fate of your brother or sister who is blind, or who uses a wheel chair, who relies on clutches or any other form of aid ?<\/p>\n
If a violent thief or thieves invade a place shooting sporadically into the air and your old father or mother, sister or brother with perhaps hearing impairment did not hear the gunshots early enough to seek shelter from danger, what do you think would be his \/ her fate ?<\/p>\n
Again, when a once agile breadwinner of a family becomes disabled from poor road infrastructure as evident in Nigeria, poor healthcare service delivery or due to a myriad of other anomalies identifiable in the system, what happens to their dependents ?<\/p>\n
What if an individual seeking an elective office has the capacity, the experience, the local and foreign connections, and indeed the homestead goodwill to ensure a calm and secured atmosphere that would stop kidnappings, banditry, terrorism, and other forms of violent crimes, from endangering the blind in Nigeria, or the deaf or even those on wheelchairs and clutches, what would you do ? <\/p>\n
Think for a moment that if the incoming administration of Atiku Abubakar would put food on the table, and bring medicine and better welfare for your aged and probably weak parents, would you allow religion, tribal sentiments or lies, mudslinging and propaganda from a people known to twist and discolour narratives, imprison your mind at the expense of the fate of your relatives and friends who cannot run into hiding in the face of danger, or who do not have the resources to seek better medical care abroad when the need arises ?<\/p>\n
It is common knowledge that the current government has failed woefully in policies and programmes; and to give Nigerians much needed respite from poverty, insecurity, maladministration and infrastructural gaps.<\/p>\n
Among the category of Nigerians more affected by the government’s lack of capacity are the vulnerables and those living with one form of disabilities or another.<\/p>\n
Available records show about 12 percent of Nigerians aged 15 and above live with some form of disability, and 2 percent experience severe disability. <\/p>\n
Among these Nigerians, poverty has become a staple in their households, with 71% (156 million) living below the poverty line, largely due to barriers to education, employment, healthcare, and mobility. <\/p>\n
It is important to note also that older persons occupy a slot in the matrix of persons with disabilities. And this group is quietly neglected. <\/p>\n
In fact many older Nigerians live with declining health and functional difficulties, and lack access to reliable pensions, affordable healthcare, or age-friendly social services. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, successive governments in the country have shown uncertainty in support for the elderly leaving millions exposed to poverty and neglect in old age. Amid these comes conflicts and insecurities which have further deepened the suffering endured by PWDs.<\/p>\n
In 2026 alone Nigeria has a record over 3.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) resulting from insurgency, banditry, and communal violence (NEMA, IOM, UNHCR 2026). There’s no gainsaying that a substantial number of this population are pre-incidence PWDs or those who joined the PWD community following life defining injuries they sustained from the crisis.<\/p>\n
Pragmatic Approach To Address The Challenges <\/p>\n
Whilst it is true that these problems cannot be wished away, it remains a fact that intentional, systematic efforts must be employed to steer the nation away from where it is currently headed.<\/p>\n
To this end, a President Atiku Abubakar\u2019s government given his experience in public service, as a former vice president and as a successful businessman, has a localized and an intentional research to ensure that every policy, infrastructure project, and reform initiative is implemented to serve diverse populations from the day the government is sworn into power.<\/p>\n
Most especially, and as a solution to the peculiarities of PWDs, the incoming President Atiku Abubakar’s administration, rather than treating inclusion as a standalone intervention, will adopt an \u201cInclusion by Design\u201d model, ensuring that the deployment of government\u2019s development efforts to all PWD concerns are guided by data.<\/p>\n
The administration has also shown commitment to pursue a participatory policy-making approach that would amplify underrepresented voices, promote cross-sector collaboration to close opportunity gaps, and to ensure universal accessibility standards in public infrastructure, transportation, digital services, and housing. <\/p>\n
That is not all. Facts on ground shows that a careful understanding of the gaps in the country’s education system accounts for the incoming government’s posture to integrate inclusive education practices across all levels of the education system. <\/p>\n
It has also committed itself to promote inclusive employment through incentives, anti-discrimination
\nenforcement, and workplace accommodation policies for Persons With Disabilities.<\/p>\n
This is in addition to institutionalizing disability mainstreaming audits across all government programmes. <\/p>\n
Against this background, PWDs now have clear direction as the 2027 general elections draw near. There’s a roadmap away from the decades of uncertainty in government’s inclusion of our community in national discourse.<\/p>\n
Evidence shows that an Atiku Abubakar’s administration would be led by credible national census, integrated social registries, and a National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to guide decisions about who receives support, where resources are sent, and how progress is measured ; and data-driven policies ensure that help reaches those who need it most. <\/p>\n
Even more, insiders reveal plans for basic subsistence allowance, through a Basic Income Grant (BIG) or unconditional cash transfer, to give
\nfamilies the breathing room to meet essential needs like food, healthcare, and schooling for their children.<\/p>\n
PWDs and indeed Nigerians of goodwill, this is our chance. Missing this opportunity is an option that cannot be contemplated !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Our Correspondent If bandits, terrorists or kidnappers come to your community and everybody has to scamper for safety with some seeking hideouts in the bush, and others running to only God knows where; what will be the fate of your brother or sister who is blind, or who uses a wheel chair, who relies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15033,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15031\/revisions\/15033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}