They were tales of social exclusion, discrimination, embarrassment, mockery and neglect from people living with disabilities in Ebonyi State during two advocacy events held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital.
The two separate events consisted of an interactive session with healthcare providers on access to sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls with disabilities, and a sensitisation workshop for religious and traditional leaders on gender-based violence and rights of persons with disabilities in Ebonyi State.
The events were organised by a Civil Society Organisation, Voice of Disability Initiative, in collaboration with the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities.
The project is in pursuit of VDI’s vision of a Nigerian society where the needs and rights of women, girls and children with disabilities are guaranteed without discrimination.
It is supported by AMPLIFYCHANGE, a UK-based NGO advancing the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls, especially those with disabilities.
Sharing experiences, some of the women PWDs at the meeting, including Ugochinyere Ugwu, Elizabeth Agbo and Blessed Nwanneka, decried the ill treatment and rights abuses often meted against them by healthcare workers.
One of the PWDs narrated: “On one of the occasions, I went with my husband to one big government hospital in Abakaliki (name withheld) to seek for family planning services, which I had discussed and agreed with my husband.
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“The nurse on the seat saw an opportunity when my husband stepped out to answer a call and started mocking me for seeking the services, cajoling me that as a disabled, I was not supposed to take up family planning because my husband can easily leave me for an able woman.
“She even went ahead to ask me how I manage to meet with my husband and even get pregnant, pointing to my physical challenge.
“At that point, I got infuriated and I asked her whether having a disability has stripped me of my human rights.
“Though she tried apologising when I reacted in anger, she had already spoiled my mood by the abuse.”
Another narrated how she went to the hospital in an emergency, and on arrival, the health workers on duty refused to attend to her because she was in a wheelchair.
She said: “I was referred to a particular unit in the hospital by a doctor and my paper was marked urgent.
“Reaching there, I could not enter because the pavement was high and there was no ramp.
“The person who was supposed to attend to me came out and when he saw me, he went back in.
“A porter was there who was supposed to also help me but he did not.
“I was left there to a point I started shouting: ‘Is there nobody here?’
“It was then that somebody came around, probably a student, and helped me in.
“Immediately the staff on desk saw me, she made a contemptuous sigh, and started shouting, asking for who I came with.
“When she felt I did not come with anybody, she stood up from her seat, stating emphatically that she cannot attend to me.
“Even when my husband came and I was eventually to be attended to, I could not climb their bed for the prescribed sample because it was so high for me.
“Most public facilities are not constructed with concerns about the convenience of people with disabilities.”
The above and many more were some of the ugly experiences encountered by PWDs on a daily basis across all social sectors.
Although the health workers at the meeting identified communication barriers, especially with the deaf and dumb among the PWDs, as a major hindrance to effective services, they acknowledged that there was an urgent need for most health workers to be guided on the rights of persons with disabilities: right to life, right to freedom of choice, right to access social services without discrimination, among others.
According to the World Health Organisation, 15 percent of the World’s population are people with disabilities.
Though some persons may be born with one disability or the other while others may have acquired disabilities due to some existential experiences, the basic truth remains that they are humans before their disabilities.
As such, all PWDs deserve respect and dignity as human persons.
With the passage of the National Disability Act recently in Nigeria, and its domestication in most states, the issues concerning disability inclusion are gradually being addressed.
However, in Ebonyi State, the issues around access to social services, gender-based violence and rights of persons with disabilities, especially women and girls, still remain grossly unattended to.
The result is that the PWDs in the state have continued to be grossly dehumanised, discriminated against and deprived of many social benefits.
In an interaction with the State Secretary of JONAPWD, Comrade Ogbonnaya Isaac Nwowu, during one of the events, he alleged that the state government in its recent employment of over 1,500 persons into the state civil service did not give a single slot to the PWDs in spite of the provision in the National Disability Act that 5 percent of every employment should be reserved for the PWDs.
Nwowu noted that the development signposts the ordeal of the group in the state and called for a change of attitude towards the PWDs.
The Executive Director, Voice of Disability Initiative, Catherine Ede, who also took the campaign to the palace of the traditional ruler of Nkeleke Unuphu community in Ebonyi Local Government Area of the state, Eze Sunday Oketa, decried the ugly experiences of the PWDs, attributing it to the absence of a law protecting their rights in the state.
Ede, with her team, lamented that Ebonyi was the only state in the South East geopolitical zone that had not domesticated the disability law.
The Executive Director further regretted that her several requests to get the audience of Governor Francis Nwifuru have not received the governor’s nod.
Kneeling in tears before the traditional ruler, his cabinet members, community and religious leaders gathered in the palace, Ede pleaded that they help influence the domestication of the law in the state.
She added: “With this project, we have been able to impact many states in Nigeria.
“Now we are in Ebonyi, we are hoping that by the time this project ends later this year, there will be improvement in inclusion in the state.”
Supporting the plea, one of the VDI team members, Edward Ogenyi, emphasised: “The government of Ebonyi state should borrow a leaf from other states.
“In Oyo State for instance, the head of the commission established to take care of the PWDs is a blind appointee.
“Ebonyi’s case is worse because the law is not yet in place.
“How can we talk of disability inclusion when there’s no law to protect them”
“It also means that policies of the government will also not specifically include them as citizens constituting a significant proportion of the population.”
A physically challenged VDI team member and rights advocate, Sussan Kelechi, in a presentation called on health workers to always adopt a right based approach, recognising that women and girls with disabilities have the same reproductive rights as other women.
Kelechi also called for modification of construction spaces to be welcoming and inclusive for PWDs and enjoined health workers to always demand inclusive sexual and reproductive health policies and funding for disability health services.
Significantly, all the stakeholders, including the traditional ruler and his cabinet members, health workers, representatives of religious bodies, and professional bodies, pledged to work in synergy to ensure that the law is domesticated in the state.
The Vice Chairperson, FIDA, Ebonyi State, Ogochukwu Okpogo, who expressed displeasure that the law was yet to be domesticated in the state, called on the governor and his wife to do everything possible to ensure that the disability law is enacted in the state.
Oketa, who prayed for the success of the VDI mission in the state, assured them he would use his position to try to influence the governor to look into their request, describing Nwifuru as a listening leader who is passionate about the welfare of the citizens.
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