•Persons with disabilities in Anambra State recount ordeal following non-implementation of law νGovt blames ignorance for non-compliance
From Lawrence Chudi, Awka
•Government building lacking access to PWDs
Anambra was the first state in the South East to domesticate the Disability Rights Law (DRL). But, painfully, since 2018 that the law came into being in the state, it has remained dormant following its non-implementation.
The arrival of the law in the state had raised hope of persons living with disabilities, as they expected that various barriers, neglect and discrimination they experienced daily would give way for an environment where equality, inclusivity and accessibility would reign.
Unfortunately, Daily Sun gathered that many Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in the state still suffer discrimination due to lack of access to public buildings and other essential services, including healthcare, public transportation, employment and other facilities. The PWDs said the law has received very poor attention and compliance from government and members of the public.
Chairman, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) Anambra State Chapter, Ugochukwu Okeke, said the implementation of the disability law has not been felt in the state, particularly in the area of access to public structures and government facilities.
Okeke said: “Government facilities are yet to comply with the law that said all the public facilities should be accessible to persons with disabilities. We are yet to see changes. For instance, it is true that the State Secretariat has ramps, but they are only located outside. From the first floor to the last of all the buildings, they all have long stairs that make life difficult for us.
“Most ministries like justice, education, and even courts, among others that we are supposed to visit regularly, are upstairs with high foundations. They possess no ramps or elevators that can easily take us from down to the office we desire to visit.”
Ifeanyi Igwegbe, the vice-chairman, National Association of the Blind (NAB), corroborated Okeke that the state has only attained 30 percent in the provision of accessibility for persons with special needs.
“Ever since the law was enacted in the state, public structures with regards to the accessibility demands are merely 30 percent in Awka capital territory alone. Communities distant from the capital city are nothing to write home about. The 30 percent is even as a result of our advocacies.
“As far as the blind community is concerned, what we know as our own accessibility issues are recognition of white cane, making the road accessible for white cane users, people offering help and assistance, and role of drivers and traffic controllers towards white cane users.
“In developed countries and places like Abuja or Lagos, you notice that whenever they are constructing roads, they usually create side-walks where pedestrians and our likes can trek and go peacefully, but here in Anambra, there is nothing like that.
“It is unfortunate that most roads in the state do not have tracks and were built in such a way that does not favour the blind. Gutters in Anambra are not covered nor were sidewalks constructed. The only places where gutters are covered are Ukwu-Oji axis of the Ziks Avenue, and the Revenue-Immigration Road. The newly built Roban Stores Road in Awka has sidewalks but the gutter is deep, scary and very dangerous.
“If the gutters are covered or sidewalks created, you notice that a blind can go on the road with his white cane without falling inside the gutter or dragging roads with vehicles,” Igwegbe said.
Legal adviser of JONAPWD in Anambra State, Peter Moneke, summarized the situation thus: “So many facilities are still no-go areas for persons with disabilities in Anambra State. The majority of churches, hospitals, courts, schools and even hotels in the state are yet to comply with the provisions of the law; consequently, PWDs in the state are excluded from governance, healthcare, social and community life.
“As I am talking to you now, nothing has been done to make the public facilities accessible for PWDs, except the few ones that came courtesy of our advocacy visits. The facilities, both public and private, in the state have not complied with the provisions of the law.
“We have the right to access the courts, but we are also surprised that PWDs cannot access many of them. For somebody walking with the aid of crutches to climb the staircase of Nnewi High Court is difficult, not to talk of a person in a wheelchair.
“Today, if a person with a disability wants to access the Nnewi North Local Government secretariat, it is not possible. The first floor has a hall, but one of us that works there cannot access that hall. She cannot even go to the chairman’s office, except some people carry her up to the first floor where the office is located.”
According to Moneke, improving the accessibility of the built environment for disabled people is critical to their being able to live independent life.
Ikechukwu Ezeokafor, who lives with a physical disability, said about 80 percent of the public facilities in Nnewi North, even in his native Orumba North Council Area are not accessible.
“Public institutions like Town Union Halls, maternities, hotels are not accessible.
“The government has failed us on this issue. They have failed to address the accessibility problem of the disabled group, and it is not as if they do not travel out and see the way it is done. That they are failing to do it for us is not a matter of money, but will,” he lamented.
PWDs said they have had disappointing and near-death experiences because of the unavailability of accessibility on some of the facilities in the state.
State chairman of NAB, Ernest Okamelu, at a workshop on the issue of accessibility in the state, reported that the majority of blind people in the state have found themselves inside gutters, either knocked by passing/reversing vehicles or in their bid to dodge vehicles passing by.
Okamelu said: “Just last two weeks, one of the NAB Anambra executives fell inside the gutter in Onitsha on her way to our meeting. She sustained serious injuries and was hospitalized.”
Ezeokafor further narrated their recent experience, “I was at the government house last week to submit a letter for World Disabilities Day celebration. We wanted to submit a letter as well as see the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, but we were not able to access the building. It was one of us with one leg that, amid difficulty, entered and submitted our letter.
“In Nnewi, I can count the number of churches that are accessible. Even the cathedral where the Catholic Bishop worships is not accessible. I had a personal encounter with a church that refused to put ramps at the entrance. Church is supposed to be the place where people with problems go for solace, but they are not interested in our plights. If they put us in mind, most of the church auditoriums would be accessible.
“Recently, the battery of the equipment I use to do my check-up at home was low. I drove to a health centre in my locality but could not access the facility. I stood outside and called the lady working there for assistance but unfortunately the two ladies there could not even lift one of my legs.”
Another physically challenged person who gave her name simply as ‘Mary’ disclosed that she nearly lost her hearing ability as a result of self-medication.
“Most times, self-medication is our saviour during critical conditions. In fact, the last time that I was sick was due to self-medication and I nearly lost my hearing ability because of that,” she said.
Mary clearly blamed lack of access to health facilities for the increasing cases self-medication among PWDs. She reported that most of the laboratories, especially the privately owned, were located upstairs making it frustrating for crutches and wheelchair users to access their services, especially at critical times.
A visually impaired civil servant, Igwegbe, said he had fallen inside the gutter on many occasions and sustained different injuries in each of the falls. He recalled that avoiding vehicles has been the blinds’ biggest challenge but noted that some of those falls could have been avoided if the road had sidewalks and other accessible features.
“One day, I was going to visit a friend in Ifite Awka and was standing by the roadside waiting to board a tricycle, but suddenly I was pushed into the gutter by a reversing vehicle, which gave me serious bodily injury. The other day, a vehicle broke my white cane without any clear remorse. In Onitsha, drivers even hit us, break our white cane and drive away without giving us attention,” he said.
Further investigations revealed that some existing ramps attached to public buildings are not well designed and have steep inclinations, slippery surfaces, with inadequate railings, inappropriate locations and are often too long with no landings. In many instances, the physically challenged find the use of such poorly designed ramps inconvenient or difficult, and prefer to use the stairs despite the challenges.
Ezeokafor told our reporter, “Over 90 percent of the ramps attached to structures are death traps.
“Some ramps were constructed with tiles making it both slippery and dangerous for some of us using wheelchairs and crutches.
“Ramps with tiles are more dangerous to us than not putting them at all. This is because any little water on it can send us to the hospital. The tip of our crutches is rubber and if placed on anything like shiny ceramic tiles, it will carry you away.
“Some of the ones they constructed in hotels are coated with chemicals such that any attempt to step on it, the person goes down. It should be a bit rough to fit the crutches.”
A wheelchair user, Chidimma Ajemba, said regular falls on tiles have become part of her life.
She said: “Whenever I go out, my mother keeps praying for me so that there will be clear weather. This is because she knows that if it rains I will definitely fall and sustain injuries.
“Most of us have fallen countless times as a result of heavy slip-ups while moving with crutches on ceramic tiles. Sometimes such slip-ups result in severe injury that would require months in the hospital.”
A civil engineer, Chibuike Ughelu, said polished tiles do not provide non-slip surfaces for those using crutches and wheelchairs, and they pose a significant hazard of slipping off, especially in times of rain.
He explained that ramps were neither covered nor protected from rain due to limitation of space largely because the provisions of ramps were treated as afterthoughts.
Also, Okamelu, the NAB state chairman, said that persons with disabilities in Anambra State live in extreme poverty.
He lamented that a large number of PWDs in Anambra State currently have no jobs or lacked the skills to engage in productive ventures, forcing many of them to depend on loved ones or alms for survival.
“We have graduates but our members are not employed. The number of PWDs employed in this current administration is very poor. Many of us are patrolling, jumping up and down looking for what to do in the state when we can fit in in some of the government and non-government establishments,” Okamelu said.
However, JONAPWD state chairman, Okeke, posited that the employment of PWDs was on merit, instead of compensatory. He bemoaned the neglect of the letters of the disability law, which prescribes 1 percent of employment opportunities for them.
Okeke explained: “The law states that in any recruitment by the government, 1 percent should be reserved for us. That means if the government is employing 3,000 workers, 30 slots should be allocated to persons with disabilities.
“The disability law made the provisions but the last teachers’ recruitment exercise had no reflection of it.”
Government gives reasons for non-compliance
Chairman, Anambra State Disabilities Rights Commission (DRC), Chuks Ezewuzie told Daily Sun that the major hindrance to the implementation of the law on accessibility and inclusion was ignorance.
He, however, reassured that the commission has begun the process of ensuring that provisions were made for the disability community in the state.
“The problem is not just lack of implementation but ignorance because people do not know what they are supposed to do. This is where DRC comes in.
“The commission plans to take steps to enforce the accessibility requirements of the Disability Rights Law on public and private structural facilities, parking lots, building plans, and permits.
“We have interfaced with ministries and agencies where we intimate them what they are supposed to do as well as guide them on implementing the Provisions of the law as it affects their establishments.”
Also, General Manager of Anambra State Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Okey Ezeobi, said that the state was already complying with the law of making public facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.
Ezeobi recent contract designs for procurement were meant to comply with the building codes as specified by the disability law, adding that his office was ensuring compliance.
“Everybody must be able to use public buildings because it is meant for all. If you are observant when the governor was talking about roads, he mentioned that all the roads must have walkways by the sides.
“That is to tell how far the state has government has gone in ensuring accessibility for the people. The government is ambitious and focused on this to make it accessible,” Ezeobi said.
In a telephone chat, Anambra State Commissioner for Housing, Paulinus Onyeka explained that the state government was rebuilding the state for liveability.
“As a ministry, we make sure that every government building is accessible to our brothers and sisters who are disabled.
“In the case of private buildings, we have our new housing policy that must be obeyed. You don’t just build houses anyhow because you want to build,” he said.
Onyeka said there was no new public structure in the state that did not have proper provisions for those living with physical disabilities.
The Commissioner further said that Government has made it a case for the State Physical Planning Board and Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) to ensure that those particular provisions were adhered to so that people in wheelchairs and other aids can access the buildings.