100 Days Score Card – Disability Group Fails Sanwo-Olu

Centre for Infrastructural and Technological Advancement for the Blind, CITAB has given thumbs down to the Lagos State Governor, Babjide Sanwo Olu for what it described as failure to fulfill any of his campaign promises for persons living with disability during his first 100 days in office.

In a press release signed by the Executive Director of CITAB, Jolomi Fenemigho, the group expressed non-satisfaction over the “Governor’s failure to achieve any of his campaign promises for the disabled community despite chanting the mantra of inclusivity when he needed votes of the community to win the gubernatorial election.”

Fenemigho said throughout the 100 days, the governor did not take any step towards addressing the interests of PWDs in the state. Speaking on accessibility issues, the CITAB boss expressed dismay over the inaccessible state of some infrastructures in the state and urged the government to wear a disability lens in the ongoing construction of roads across the state. He mentioned that pedestrian bridges, walk-ways and side-walks should be designed for ease of access to disabled persons in the state.

According to him: “The State Government has a responsibility to renovate and install accessible features in all public structures in the state for easy access to the disabled in line with the 2010 Lagos State Special Peoples Act, which states in section24, sub-section 4: ‘The Government shall ensure that roads, side-walks, pedestrian crossing and all other facilities made for public use shall be made accessible to and usable by persons living with disability including those on wheel chairs’.

On education for persons with disability, Fenemigho said much attention needed to be paid to students with special needs in Lagos adding that there should be provision for accessible learning environment with special learning devices such as audio books, talking calculators, braille machines, voice amplification devices, captioning video monitors and other assistive aids which would boost their academic performance.