The Executive Director, Center for Citizens with Disabilities, David Anyaele, on Friday disclosed that Nigeria has about 25 million persons with disabilities and the number keeps increasing as a result of insurgency in the country.
Anyaele made this disclosure while briefing newsmen on the need to quickly pass the Disability Bill into law.
He said signing the bill into law would go a long way to ameliorate the challenges confronting persons with disability in Nigeria.
He said: Nigeria is the giant of Africa with about 25 million persons with disabilities and the number keeps increasing as a result of insurgency across Nigeria and North east in particular and poverty.
“This figure quite above population of some countries in Africa.”
Anyaele explained that the legislation is aimed at domesticating the United Nations Convention on disability, which is adjudged by the PWD community in Nigeria to contain the most comprehensive provisions on the subject matter.
He added that when passed into law, Nigeria will join other countries in Africa like Uganda, Tanzanian and Republic of South Africa that have domesticated the United Nations Convention on Disability.
He said: “It is our believe that signing the bill into an Act will go a long way to ameliorate the challenges that confront persons with disabilities in Nigeria, a law that will usher in person with disabilities into equal opportunities like their contemporaries in other countries in Africa.”