The Head of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, Professor Bukola Akinbola, has appealed to the media to project persons with disabilities based on their strength and not prejudice.
Akinbola made the appeal on Tuesday, at a programme tagged African Youth Pathways to Resilience and Systems Change (AYPReS), organised by Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) and supported by MasterCard Foundation.
The don while addressing the gathering, explained that persons with disabilities are also human beings like everyoneelse.
Akinbola then appealed to the media to project them based on their strength, urging the media to report issues related to persons with disabilities without discrimination and prejudice.
She said, “We should put an end to all manners of prejudice and discrimination. Persons with disabilities are also human beings like all of us. And anyone who needs additional materials to function properly has disability. If you can’t read without classes, that means you are also in that category.
“So, we should stop all forms of prejudice against persons with disabilities. We should not do anything to discriminate against them because they are also human beings like us.
“The media should project persons with disabilities in terms of their strength. What they are doing well. In terms of what they are doing and not based on prejudice and discrimination. Persons with disabilities are good in arts and sports”.
The Head of Professional Development and Training Programme of PASGR, Dr Pauline Ngimwa noted that the main purpose of the programme was to understand the perceptions of the marginalised youths in order to suggest policies and interventions to ameliorate the problems facing them.
“This intervention is focusing on youths, especially the marginalised ones. We want to understand their perceptions. We are also looking at the marginalised youths, youths with disabilities, these in internally displaced camps, informal sector and those in the rural areas”.
The Principal Investigator for PASGR in Nigeria, Dr Babatunde Ojebuyi explained that the programme aims to bring changes through research-driven policies.
Ojebuyi who is a senior lecturer at the Department of Communication and Language Art, University of Ibadan, said, “This programme is an inception programme in Nigeria to hear the voices of youths especially the marginalised ones. We are targeting the persons with disabilities, those in the IDPs and other areas.
“We went to hear their voices in a way that will bring policy change. We can’t describe for them. We need to hear from them. It is to bring about the Nigerian content into it because this programme is going on in ten countries in Africa and Nigeria is one of them”.
Project strength of disabled people, dont be prejudiced – Don to Nigerian media
