The national leader of Persons with Disability in the ruling All Progressives Congress, Mr. Tolu Bankole, shares his thoughts on some of the challenges inhibiting PWDs’ participation in active politics, as well as his position on the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. Our Correspondent, Laraba MUREY, brings excerpts from the interview.
You are a little over 100 days in office. What changes have you or the party made since your assumption of office?
After assumption of office, I started by changing the orientation of the National Working Committee towards Persons With Disabilities, and I can confidently say we are on the same page now and they are very supportive.
We have also been embarking on aggressive orientation and sensitization of the public on equal rights for PWDs. I was able to mobilize PWDs clusters for APC especially towards the 2023 campaigns/elections.
Under my leadership, we also initiated the sponsoring of the first National Summit for PWDs in Nigeria which took place here in Abuja. I also led the debate securing free nomination forms for all PWDs aspirants, we did it for the first time in the history of PWDs in Nigeria and this will facilitate inclusion of PWDs in the party’s primaries.
However, it is not just enough for you to say free nomination for everybody. What about the other resources for them to actually go into that election? That’s why I’m talking about financial security and economic empowerment of our members.
Going forward, we intend to move the PWDs office from the back of the secretariat to the main building for total inclusiveness. This secretariat has been here for almost six years. Now we have an elevator here, so there is access to any of the offices.
From what you have reeled out, quite a lot has been done. But what are some of the challenges that PWDs are facing?
Yes, I’m not comfortable discussing the challenges, however, one of the major challenges we face anywhere is access. For instance, take a look at most of the buildings around you, look at our transportation system, it’s mostly difficult for PWDs to access them. Also go to most ministries and parastatals, it’s hard to move freely because of these problems in our building designs and that is why I make emphasis on access.
Then when you talk of access to health, to transportation, access to education, all these things put together are hardly accessible to the PWDs and that’s why I said access remains our major challenge.
Most persons living with disabilities find it difficult to access basic education. It is difficult for us to attend primary school because of the way the country’s educational system is structured. You cannot go to university easily and this further limit you and you end up not having the requisite educational background.
When you put all that together, if you are not strong, you end up becoming a complete liability. So, that’s why I will continue to hit on access as a major issue. Whether you are visually impaired, or living with any form of impairment, access is a major challenge.
Away from access, financial security is another issue, because most Acts are not implemented or domesticated to protect you.
What is the way forward given the challenges you have enumerated?
We have to continue the advocacy because the solution will start from people. Their perception, their orientation about PWDs must change. They must stop seeing us as beggars or using us for publicity stunts. In this case I’m referring to groups and individuals who pretend to support us, but actually doing it for their selfish interests. They want to buy noodles and old wheelchairs worth less than N10,000 and assemble 10 PWDs on wheelchairs and take photographs for the media and call that empowerment. We are no longer going to be part of that. I’m not asking for anyone to pity us, but let them do the right thing. We are asking for equal rights.
Domestication of the National Disability Act of 2018 as assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari and full implementation of the Act. when these things are done, then it becomes easier for us to operate and compete.
In terms of registration for the permanent voter’s card, are you impressed by the turn out of PWDs?
Based on available data, we have more than 31 million Nigerians who are PWDs in different clusters.
But when you look at the 31 million you get to break them down to children and those within the voting age. So, that’s why we are taking it down to about 25 million people, who are actually PWDs who can vote. Also, when you look at the way the Continuous Voter Registration is structured, especially with the peculiar problems we had as PWDs, even the so-called able people, faced lots of difficulties during registration.
We have approached INEC, it may be out of convention, but we are appealing to INEC to extend PVC registration for us for at least one month. So that we will not be disenfranchised.
As a party, the APC has a membership of over 40 million, what percentage of this are PWDs?
The best party for PWDs is the APC. When you look at the structure of APC, we have a representative of PWDs in the highest organ of the party, that’s the National Working Committee and that’s me. When you go to the state level, we have a structure called the working executive committee. At that level we have a representative who is a member, we also go to the local government structure. We have a member when you go down to ward level, we have a member also at the polling unit.
So, in every state today, we have not less than 3,000 to 4,000 members by the establishment of the party and this will multiply by 10 or 5 across states. You can imagine their ability to canvass for votes. We have some that are not in the party structure. The easiest voters you can get is block votes of PWDs because they are stable, consistent people and when they believe in something they go en-bloc to do it.
Let me also add quickly that we have just concluded a National Working Committee meeting and it was decided for inclusion, that my group be part of the campaign council.
Now that you are part of the campaign council, what should we expect from PWDs of APC?
We will go all out to solicit for votes for all our candidates. People are getting it wrong and think we will only campaign for PWDs. No, we will also canvass for others. Yes, I might be a PWD but my wife is not. We have wives, we have sisters, brothers and relatives that we have to convince to come on board, so when I’m talking about 21 million votes you can multiply it by any cluster mobilization beyond PWDs only.
What is your position on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of your party?
Most times I don’t want to join these issues, since that is the position of the party. I have said this severally that the Tinubu Shettima ticket is a universal ticket. I just want to continue to appeal to all of us to support this party and vote for them and get them to work.
But when you approach an election like this, it is customary in any democracy, there are those who would want to pull the house down. I recall during Obasanjo’s regime, when he was about to leave office, the chaos was like this. Even when governors want to leave office, it’s like this and that is why we continue to pray that there is peace in Nigeria.
I know the APC is for Nigerians and Nigerians for APC. There will always be conflict of interests in every society, but the good thing is that those conflicts can always be resolved amicably.
