 According to the Nigeria National Population Commission, about 9.6% of people are living with disability in Nigeria, thereby making disability inclusion an instrument in eradicating certain barriers to social inclusion, equity and participation of PWDs towards promoting their rights and well-being. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is said to have made provisions for PWDs such as braille ballots for voters with visual impairment, magnifying glasses for people with albinism and enlarged posters for voters with airing impairments. However, the inclusion does not stop, doesn't stop there as the disability society as asked for recognition in President Balanti Numbu's government. The group stated that the inclusion of persons with disability in the federal cabinet would bring about a more comprehensive and effective governance, fostering a society that truly upholds the principle of equality, diversity and social justice. Joining me to discuss these are Shedrak Danladi, Project Officer, Disability Inclusion in Governance, Cardinal Rose Daniel, Project Officer, Disability Inclusion in Governance, Abuja and Ophelia Patrick Media and Communication Officer Disability Inclusion in Governance. Yes, we can hear you. Fantastic, and that voice is the voice of Danladi, I want to believe. Yes, this is Shedrak Danladi on the call. Danladi, would you want to kindly help our viewers come into the world of an average disability challenged person, what are the challenges you face on a day by day basis in a society like ours? Okay, once again we would like to appreciate the uncle and club TV for the opportunity given to us to discuss on the inclusion of persons with disabilities in governance with special emphasis on women with disabilities. I think if I get your background correctly you actually caught the statistic from National Population Council about 27 million Nigerian persons with disabilities and if you should check our entire population as a country the population of persons with disabilities is a very large job in our population ascendation but certainly persons with disabilities have been willfully neglected and marginalized in our society. That part existan legislations like the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities the Nigerian Disability Rights 2018 and even the special provision met by ILEC in the Electoral Act 2022 which met special provisions for the participation of persons with disabilities in electoral process. Now this will tell you that the level of marginalization persons with disabilities particularly women can never be of over emphasize That's why CBC Foundation in partnership with Plark and Makato Foundation identified this very important gap now embarked on advocacy to call on policymakers, government and key stakeholders to include persons with disabilities in governance persons with disabilities have all attacks to make contributions to nation building and the growth of this very nation let me get one of your colleagues you particularly must be a woman because we are not allowed Danladi you may want to continue because as it is now we seem to have lost your colleague or colleagues Hello Danladi Okay rose Okay good to know rose Okay when Danladi did his job did his introductions he also specifically mentioned the fact that this should be focusing more on women fortunately you are a woman what angle would you want to take to contribute to this Come again please I didn't hear you can you speak longer Rose can you hear me Yes I can hear you now Okay Rose how would you want to start your contribution to today's program Okay I would like to highlight on the issue of on the representation and the challenges that women with disabilities are facing in the electoral and political participation and even the inclusion in government policies I can hear myself the echo is interrupting me Nobody is interrupting you from the studio and the MCR please we need to be a bit quiet The echo Okay so I would like to advocate for proper implementation of the policies that have to do with inclusion of women with disabilities in the decision making table and also in governance Can you go about that would you have some suggestions would you want to speak to some specific institutions and architecture of state how would you want to suggest being involved Yes I would like to speak to the government with some recommendations and also the general public Why to make those specific recommendations and suggestions Alright I would like the government to fast track the implementation of close 54 of the electoral act which gives room for persons with disabilities to vote and be voted for into any electoral office in the country and also like the electoral system to be accessible for persons with disabilities I would also like the government to be intentional in fast tracking the implementation of the UNDP Act section 29 of leaving the one behind and also the implementation of disability act 2018 we have all these policies in place but they are not implemented at all in this country therefore women with disabilities and persons with disabilities entirely have been relegated to the background so that's the most important issues that I want to raise in this discussion Okay let me go to your colleague now Danladi, is Danladi still there? Yes I'm here, I'm on the call Okay Danladi from what you and your colleague have stated it is becoming clearer to me that this may be pieces of baggage that is generally inflicted on the society as a result of poverty cultural, material and intellectual poverty and we may need to attend to some fundamental problems before we get to the rightful demands that you people are making how would you respond to that? Well I don't actually get your question clearly but if I get you correct you are trying to ask me that cultural background poverty and other factors are the major things that are causing the marginalization of persons with disabilities in the society, is that correct? You are very very right and let me also add to that by saying that when opportunities are limited and especially when the focus on expanding the worth of society is not tackled even when some of you are put in government it becomes very tokenistic as they do now to the youths they put a couple of youths in some cabinets but the large majority pre-promptown majority of Nigerian youths are left in organic and functional poverty and they are out there just milling around without something productive to do but the tokenism would have been fulfilled that would you want to respond to that? Ya First and foremost government need to be intentional and have the political will to get some things done in the society I think we are not asking for much we are only asking for the implementation of the 5% it is a constitutional right we have legislations that have set aside 5% of the inclusion of persons with disabilities in governance in employment and working area so when you try to bring the poverty factor and other cultural identities that affect the Nigerian society we cannot shy away from that basic truth they are factors that are affecting our groups as a country but however they should never be a aspect to stop the inclusion of persons with disabilities in governance we have had world leaders who were persons with disabilities and the met significance contribution to the growth of their nation and the world at large now if you should check statistics President Bola Ames Binigu have met appointment and other states government have met appointment how many percent or how many individuals are persons with disabilities in areas where there were such appointment how many women been appointed that have come in with disability a woman in nature either she has disability which she did not have disability is vulnerable in nature as far as the Nigeria society is concerned and then consider how vulnerable a woman with disabilities is so it is only when persons with disabilities are ability represented in government that is when they can push for policies that actually addresses their needs and concept as the popular saying goes nothing without us nothing for me without us so we have to be in the negotiation table where decision is being made where allocation of resources are being made in order for us to have a larger representation for ourselves so therefore the poverty the cultural divide are not reasonable enough the inclusion of women with disabilities or persons with disabilities in governance I really agree with you that in a normal environment where people want to be progressive and where people want to be innovative in improving the quality of lives of people are ordinary especially those in leadership I am not talking about political leadership alone I am talking about even people like ourselves because we are in leadership but having said that you will see that even in the cabinet the national level or the state level the percentage of women is still very low like women generally and apart from that even the percentage of the youth is still very low so I am thinking aloud with you now I fully agree with your position but you know what we must go to the table so this seemingly intellectually lazy people in leadership with some concrete ideas that we can work them through so I really want to trade ideas with you now and Rose what will be some specific ideas that we can trade with them to handhold them to what they should be doing right like all these things the ideals that you have spelled out the two of you going to get tired of holding government accountable and being on your neck to ensure that they do the needful that's the number one step that will be done always saying that the Nigerian society have let downloads and legislation that actually address these issues we have measured but the implementation of this look is what we lack so therefore we will keep on calling on government to do the needful and we will keep on encouraging the society like you said it is not just in politics we need participation in all aspects of life so members of the societies at Nigeria must first and foremost recognize that persons with disabilities have the right to predileges and opportunities like any other Nigeria Dalaadi thank you let me give opportunity now to your colleague Rose are you still there? Yes I'm here I know that as a result of our cultural baggage you may just as a woman yield the ground totally to the two men talking beside you Rose this is much about you too how would you want to contribute to some of the things that Dalaadi has stated thus far? Yes I agree with what Dalaadi has said you know the issue is that women with disabilities face triple jeopardy first as a woman second as a woman with disability and then partly the society is not friendly to us when a woman with disability come out contest for an elective position you will see people discriminating you will see a lot of attitude you know attitude in our challenge is one of the issues that is weighing us down but I would like to state it categorically that the general public should know that disability is not inagility and so for the government should give us a chance to bring out our potentials we have a lot of people who are kept among us who have CEOs of NGOs Rose Yes, I am with you I fully agree with you but I am thinking do we really have to limit this to the government alone why must a TV station not give you the opportunity that this TV station is giving you now why should other other spheres of society not also only engage with the talents and the giftings of people with disability so I am not against you I am not against you lasuring in on the government but I am thinking the government is just a reflection of who we are organically and as a whole how do you think about that? Yes, it all boils down on the government because we are citizens and we are being excluded that is why we are raising our voices to address these concerns if the government will give us a chance to be on the decision table if the government appoints a minister as a woman with disability if they appoint us as SSA and all their key positions the whole system the people the general public and everybody will give us that right they will include us and they will see value in us and that is why we are just tackling the government to include us and when they include us all other things will fall in place Okay, Rose I can't agree any less than your submission would you on that submission I can't agree any less too with Danladi and I really want to use this opportunity to join the view public the degree to which we extend opportunities to people with disabilities the degree to which we accommodate them and make them feel that they are dignified they are members of the dignified body of humanity speaks to the degree to which we are progressive and indeed we can best appropriate all the energies and the creative energies of our society I want to thank you Danladi is Danladi there? Yes, I'm here I want to thank you very much for this opportunity and Rose Rose, I really also have to thank you for having beauty I guess I'm smelling something the fragrance of Rose now too I really want to thank you for the opportunity of engaging with you Thank you very much Thank you so much Thank you so much Thank you Today's throwback Obaaki Shemone the 18th century Oba of Lagos whose pre-ascendancy misfortune to make Lagos to be the most cosmopolitan commercial capital of West Africa Obaaki Shemone reigns as Oba of Lagos from around 1704 to 1749 His father was Oba Ado a corrupted colloquial pronunciation of Ado Please note that anytime you hear the word Ado is in someone's or somewhere's name in Lagos indeed across the land of Olu Kumi meaning my friend or compatriot which Yoruba has called themselves before reclapitin whilst interviewing Sultan Bello of Sakoto around 1824 recorded in his note that the Sultan referred to as Yoruba the Kani people hence the people of Yoruba ancestry in South America whose phobias were shipped into slavery long before the re-christinans still call themselves the Lukumi people Ado speaks to connections with Binin and Omoin the largest whose pervasive historical role in the formation of Lagos as we now know it has been largely misclassified for Binins and where Irelukuti and Oba Gabaro whom is succeeded Under his brothers Oba Gabaro's reign Akishimoni had a disagreement with his brother over the installation of Olofi's descendants as chiefs which led to Akishimoni's banishment to Aqba Yoruba's historical coastal or littoral precinct of which today's Badagri is an area It was while it was in exile that it was exposed to commerce and built relationships with European slave traders This misfortune as you will see later ultimately culminated in the signature cosmopolitanism and the commercial vibrancy of Lagos When Gabaro died Akishimoni became Oba around 1704 he formally established trading in Lagos by inviting Portuguese and Brazilian slave merchants whom he was doing business with in exile at Aqba Historian the revived historian J.F. Adia Jai asserted that Akishimoni granted a monopoly on slave trade to his Brazilian and Portuguese trading partners Lagos in time overtook the ports of Hadae or Wadae and Port Novo which are now located in Benen Republic but where the two main Ulukumi's sea ports that functioned has the leading slave ports in the Bait of Benen Under Akishimoni's reign Igaidugoro was for the first time covered with porcelain ties reportedly presented as gifts by Portuguese slave merchants Akishimoni died in 1749 and was reportedly buried in Benen in conclusion Do you know that the miserable circumstance of life that you are presently wading through may eventually define your legacy in gold just as that pre-overship exile experience made of Akishimoni's reign an unforgettable era in Lagos which is aptly captured in one of the lines of his plane that is Uriki in Yoruba among Aruu Loko Koyinbo Tode Koyinbo Dehto Uonon Posi he was made maritime wealth before the arrival of the Caucasians and at the arrival of the and at the arrival on the shores of Lagos his wealth multiplied and that's it on the show tonight I am Bola Oba have a good time