The Joint National Association Of Persons With Disabilities has said that funding for the proposed commission for persons with disabilities would not be an issue.
The group gave the assurance during an advocacy visit to the office of Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, who is currently pushing a bill for an act to ensure full integration of persons with disabilities into the society and establish a National Commission for persons with disabilities.
The National President of the Association, Barrister Danlami Basharu, said they came to identify with the senator representing Kogi Central on the disability bill.
Basharu maintained that the Commission, if established, will get the full support of the United Nations and some other international agencies like United States Agency for International Development and the World Bank.
Other likely sources of funding for the commission, according to Basharu include the Global Disability Rights Funds, Open Society Initiative, World Health Organisation and foreign embassies in Nigeria.
He therefore called on the National Assembly to quickly pass the bill, while appealing to President Goodluck Jonathan not to unnecessarily delay his assent to the bill.
Basharu argued that with the commission in place, persons with disabilities would no longer be relegated to the background in the country.
In a statement signed by Michael Jegede, the Special Assistant on media to Abatemi-Usman, the senator was quoted as saying: “I am not doing anything different from what other lawmakers have done in the past. I am not more intelligent than they are. The only difference is the willpower. The Disability Bill is about development. It needs a full-fledged coordination and proper championing. We need to argue very practically and strongly especially now that the government is planning to cut down cost of governance by reducing the number of agencies and parastatals in the country. I have the ministry and committee on women affairs on my side and I believe that the bill will see the light of the day.”
The Bill had scaled through first reading at the floor of the Seventh Senate on November 17, 2011.
Efforts by the fifth and sixth National Assembly to put the law in place were abortive.