THE executive secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), Mr James David Lalu, has called on the National Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that discriminations suffered in some universities in Nigeria by persons living with disabilities are eliminated to provide for inclusive education.
Lalu made the call when he led a delegation from the commission on a courtesy visit to the office of the acting executive secretary, NUC, Mr Chris J. Maiyaki, in Abuja.
In his remarks, he said the aim of the visit was to discuss critical matters affecting persons with disabilities in the Nigerian universities.
He recounted a personal experience of discrimination he suffered in the hands of a university management when he was offered admission during his undergraduate days.
He recalled his rejection from the course admitted into when the university observed that he was physically-challenged and preferred to offer him special education, which he described as a common experience of persons with disabilities in Nigerian universities.
To stem the tide, Mr Lalu informed Mr Maiyaki that there was now an existing law in the country barring discrimination against persons with disabilities.
He expressed dismay that the just re-engineered university curriculum did not factor in the needs of persons with disabilities due to lack of consultation with them in the review process.
He, therefore, requested for collaboration with the NUC to address the observed gaps.
He informed the NUC team that NCPWD is currently working with 13 Nigerian universities on the possibilities of incorporating their needs into their curriculum
He stated that a Sign Language programme had commenced at Federal University Lafia (FULafia) and hoped that other universities will soon integrate relevant programmes that can address the needs of people with disabilities.
The NCPWD executive secretary appealed to the NUC to champion its demand by introducing some courses that will further address issues of persons with disabilities in the General Studies (GST) programmes of Nigerian universities.
On employment, he said that there was already an existing circular from the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), directing government establishments to give five percent slots to persons with disabilities during recruitment exercises.
He lamented that this had not been honoured by most establishments, stating that this discriminatory practice remained the major challenge of persons with disability, noting that keeping to the tenets of the circular would reduce the suffering among them.
He appealed to Nigerian universities in particular, to empathise with persons with disability both, in admission and recruitment exercises.
The acting executive secretary, Mr Maiyaki in his response, informed the delegation that Nigeria now has 260 universities as at date, comprising 51 federal, 62 state and 147 private universities and still counting.
On the issues on persons with disabilities, the Acting Executive Secretary disclosed that the Nigerian University System (NUS) had been responsive and responsible to persons with disabilities as the NUC itself, through its Directorate of Students (DoS), had paid regular visits to the universities to access the status of students support facilities and services.
Through this process, the commission had always recommended that universities should redesign their programmes and physical facilities to accommodate persons with disabilities.
Maiyaki said NUC management attaches great value to people with disabilities and frowned at any form of discrimination against them.
He promised that the commission would discuss the issues raised on the already re-engineered curriculum to see how to capture the needs of NCPWD.
He also informed the team that the NUC had planned to organise a colloquium of stakeholders to discuss key issues affecting university education in Nigeria, and promised to invite the disability commission to participate actively and make presentations.
He congratulated the Executive Secretary of NCPWD for giving the Commission credible leadership and expressed deep appreciation on the team’s visit.
He pledged to ensure that the collaboration became more viable as the NUC totally subscribed to the mandate and mission of the NCPWD and requested the management to make a formal proposal to the NUC on the areas of interventions.
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