PwDs Battle Discrimination Despite Legal Safeguards

At just 17 years old, Akiode Samuel’s life changed forever after a car crash in 2004 resulted in a spinal cord injury, leaving him reliant on a wheelchair for his mobility. Determined to remain a productive member of society, Samuel took to cobbling, a craft he has since mastered over the years.

 

To save operating costs, Samuel, who has been in the cobbling business since 2011 lives and works out of what he describes as a moderate apartment in the Abule Egba area of Lagos State. According to him, much of his success has been borne out of interpersonal engagement with clients.

“My first big contract was in 2013 when some bankers in a first-generation bank hired me to make shoes for them. That year, I made shoes for almost all the male employees in the bank, including their security personnel,” he said.

Samuel, who describes himself as a savvy negotiator with excellent people skills believes that his talent and innate ability to relate with people are integral ingredients for his success in business. However, over the years, the Lagos-based businessman has had to battle the daunting challenge of navigating through public spaces due to the lack of facilities that take the needs of Persons with Disabilities into account.

He said, “The major challenge is moving around, especially when I go to offices. I haven’t been to many office buildings that made adequate provision for people with disability.”

Asked if he was aware that there were laws prescribing respectful treatment for PwDs, especially as it relates to their ability to engage with the rest of society, the Osun State-born cobbler said, “I’m aware. But none of these laws have changed anything. I can’t say anything has changed.”

Samuel is by a long stretch not the only Person with Disability to have experienced varying degrees of discrimination in a society that has failed to promote equal rights for all classes of citizens.

Andrew Odey, an amputee who recently graduated from the University of Calabar, describes his experience in the institution as supremely challenging, particularly due to the chasms he had to scale to achieve his dream of earning a bachelor’s degree.

“Society treats us like we don’t exist. Nobody does anything and thinks — How will this affect people with disability? We don’t even come to mind when many important decisions are made. We don’t have a choice, we just have to keep pushing against all odds.”

Andrew’s concern, which resonates with PwDs across the country has become so deeply etched in the fabric of society to an extent that many have subconsciously ratified it as “par for the course.”

In Nigeria, several investigations have revealed that despite numerous pieces of legislation enshrining their rights, PwDs have continued to face daunting hurdles with regard to access to public infrastructure, transportation systems, inclusive education; and, even when they defy all odds to upskill themselves, are denied access to the lucrative professions and jobs.

With this growing disregard for an important component of the national population has also come unyielding advocacy from individuals and civic groups seeking to restore the inalienable rights of PwDs to the public’s consciousness. The result of this advocacy has been legislation at the Federal and State levels, prohibiting discrimination against PwDs and recognising their invaluable contributions and contributing members of society.

Legal Framework: Promises of Protection for PwDs

After decades of tireless advocacy, in 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari signed a law prohibiting discrimination against PwDs. The law prohibits and penalises every form of discrimination on the basis of disability and the penalty for violators includes a fine of N1m for corporate bodies and N100,000 for individuals, or a six-month jail term.

The implication of the law means that over 25 million persons with disabilities in Nigeria should no longer experience social, economic, and political exclusion.

The Act, among other provisions, seeks to eliminate employment discrimination, provide access to public buildings within five years, foster inclusive education, and guarantee employment by reserving five per cent of employment quota for PwDs in all public organisations, among others.

The law imposes sanctions in the form of fines and imprisonment for defaulters. It also established the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) to oversee the prevention of discrimination against persons with disabilities and to ensure disability inclusion across all sectors.

It has been five years since the Disability Act came into existence, but has had little impact on the lives of over 25 million PwDs that it was intended to protect.

While the Nigerian government has successfully codified the law, not much can be said about its implementation. As it stands, 13 states including the Federal Capital Territory have adopted it leaving little to no progress report from the other 23 states.

Despite these laws, the Nigerian government, policymakers and society perceive issues relating to persons with disabilities as charity and privilege and never as a matter of rights and responsibility.

On March 27, 2024, the son of a former Nigerian governor, Debola Daniel, in a post on his X account, shared what he described as “the worst sort of public humiliation” he had ever experienced.

In a series of tweets which went viral, Daniel explained that a manager of a KFC outlet at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos loudly declared that wheelchairs and wheelchair users were not allowed within the premises of the outlet. The manager proceeded to order his travel companions and himself to leave the outlet.

Daniel, who advocates the rights of PwDs, explained that the manager’s action made him feel “less than human, like a guard dog not allowed into the house. Lonely and isolated.”

He continued, “I will continue to escalate this exponentially until I get a reasonable resolution and there’s no stopping me. You cannot treat people this way. There are approximately 27 million Nigerians living with some form of disability. That’s over 13 per cent of the country. 1 in 6 people on the planet are disabled. You MUST NOT treat people this way.”

The series of tweets detailing the spectacle sparked public outrage which attracted the attention of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), which ordered the KFC outlet to shut down its operations. Although KFC has since apologised to Daniel, many PwDs like him have continued to face discrimination despite an abundance of legal safeguards.

The incident at KFC Nigeria goes against section 1 of the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities on the basis of their disability in any situation or by any person or institution.

For many PwDs, the gap between legal protections and their everyday reality remains poignantly wide. While policies have been verbalised, they have failed to shield PwDs from the daily discrimination they continue to face. Despite the preponderance of laws, many PwDs have come to view the policy as little more than a symbolic gesture, as Nigerian societal attitudes towards them have seen little meaningful change.

The Push for Stronger Enforcement

In light of the current realities faced by PwDs in Nigeria, there is no gainsaying in stating that the fight for true social inclusion and better enforcement is far from over.

More than ever, disability rights advocates are demanding more than just legal protections — they are calling for a deep societal shift. This urgency has spurred organisations like Disability Rights International and Nigeria’s Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) to work tirelessly to raise awareness, monitor the implementation of laws, and hold institutions accountable for failing to uphold the rights of PwDs.

The goal is to integrate and consolidate advocacy efforts from civic groups across the globe and compel more countries to introduce stricter penalties for non-compliance with disability laws. All of these being said, the private sector has been admonished to step up to the plate and go beyond lip service to create a culture that increasingly embraces inclusive hiring practices and internal policies.

While speaking in an interview with Premium Times, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), James Lalu, admitted weak implementation of the Act in the last five years.

He, however, explained that this was expected in the five-year transitional period stipulated by the Act for public buildings and structures to become accessible and usable for PwDs.

“Within those five years, you are not in a position to enforce the provisions of the Act because it’s a window that the law has given to the Nigerian society. So, the impact within those five years will only be minimal. This is not the fault of the commission, but that is the provision of the law,” he stated.

With the five-year time lag now over since January, Mr Lalu said the commission was putting systems in place to ensure that the disability community reaps the benefits of the Act.

“The Commission has developed the Minimum Accessibility Standard Regulation, which is in line with the Building Code, which has equally devised specifications and standard models for modification of buildings and other infrastructural developments in order to enhance enforcement of the provisions of the Act. The regulation is in circulation now.”

Way Forward

In one of her thought-provoking rhapsodies, disability rights advocate, Judith Heumann, noted that “the problem isn’t disability, it’s society’s refusal to accommodate.” Today, Heumann’s rhapsody continues to resonate deeply with Persons with Disabilities across the globe as they navigate their everyday life fighting to be seen as humans and not by their disability tags. What this implies is that until society as a whole acknowledges the inherent humanity and potential of PwDs, legal safeguards alone may not be enough.

With every chance gotten, the conversation around disability has to be brought to the front burner, thereby creating the platform for the adoption of laws by countries aimed at protecting the rights and everyday experiences of PwDs.

In Nigeria, despite this battle with legal protection, the everyday story of PwDs seems to be the same — one of barriers, bias, and struggles. The question remains — why have legal safeguards failed to eliminate discrimination? The answer to this question is critical to determining the extent to which society can move from the comfy cots of “legislative platitudes” to fostering a culture that truly respects the rights of all citizens.