U.S. supports full inclusion of persons with disabilities in political, economic life

F.John-Bray

The United States Consulate in Lagos on Thursday called for more concerted efforts to ensure the full inclusion of persons living with disabilities in every aspect of social, political, economic, and Delivering remarks at a program organized by Project Enable Africa in commemoration of the 2018 International Day of Persons with Disabilities, U.S. Consulate Public Affairs Officer Russell Brooks, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s support for the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Brooks explained that the United States, as part of its foreign policy, works to remove barriers and create a world in which disabled people enjoy dignity and full inclusion. According to him, promoting disability rights is an integral part of  the promotion of human rights.

“In pursuing diplomacy that is inclusive and empowering of persons with disabilities, the United States opposes discrimination against persons with disabilities everywhere and in all its forms. If we permit anyone in our society to be accorded less than their full human rights, we are all diminished as a result,” Brooks stated.  

At the event, rights activist and President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, and Access Bank’s Head of Sustainability, Ms. Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan, emphasized the importance of the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society.

In 2017, Project Enable Africa, a Nigerian civic organization that promotes the rights, empowerment and social inclusion of persons with disabilities established a disability-friendly digital hub in Lagos with funding from the U.S. government. 

To date, the hub has trained 20 young persons with disabilities in various information and communication technology-based skills, and supports them through mentorship. During today’s event, Project Enable Africa announced a second cohort that will be trained next year. Project Enable Africa is also the winner of the Google Impact Challenge Funds Competition in Nigeria and will receive an award of $250,000.

Project Enable is led by Mr. Olusola Owonikoko, a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow and 2014 Fellow of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI).

His words, “We are very confident with the new funding mechanism which increases by way of support from the federal government.

"When it gets to the part when we are going to need private sector participation, which we are hoping would be raised sometime in 2020, it would not be difficult to raise that private sector portion of the funding.

“We are pleased; we have gone from early works 1, 2, 3, 4 to now main works. The commitment we have secured form the contractor is that you will start to see what looks like a visible sign of the bridge shortly. You can already see that a lot of work has already gone on but slab and the part of the bridge that is now coupling all these pillars we expect that to start next year.

“It is not a cheap project, we are looking at something in the neighbourhood of N220 billion as the cost of the project.

“We have done most of the structuring, there is a lot of money we have spent on project preparation and the sequencing of the fund are such that we have started with PIDF, NSIA money will come and third party funding will come. We want to make sure that it is sequence properly so you don’t burden the project with a huge amount of cost.”