Why Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa unveiled #WheelchairnotLuggage Campaign

By Chioma Obinagwam

The need to eliminate human rights abuses among mobility-challenged persons in Nigeria has prompted the Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa to unveil an essential campaign.

Confiance News gathered from a statement issued by the Communications Associate of the organization, Tunde Okunola on Wednesday.

The campaign, tagged ‘WheelChairNotLuggage’.is passionate appeal and demand for reorientation, change of behaviours of transporters, especially public buses, cars drivers who had over the years continued to abuse the right of mobility-challenged persons across the nation.

The statement showed that the abuses of these rights range from unwillingness to transport these identified persons, inhuman treatment when they do as well as additional charges drivers attached to carriage of wheelchairs when they eventually agreed to transport them.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Disability and Inclusion Africa, Yinka Olaito, at the launching affirmed this campaign is long overdue as many persons with mobility challenges and who result to use of Wheel Chairs had for long suffered in silence various abuses in this regards from public transporters: buses, cars as well as Airline operators, many of these are ignorant or are just purely mischievous.

This must come to an end.
According to Yinka Olaito “The Nigeria’s Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Law 2018 was explicitly clear about such abuses and inhuman treatment against anyone based on body structure. A wheelchair is a personal mobility item and not a luggage, refusing to board a person who uses a wheelchair or treating the wheelchair as luggage is illegal and can be a criminal offence if found guilty by law.”

Yinka Olaito called on leaders of every recognized transport Associations in Nigeria to call members into order henceforth. Also Yinka Olaito called on every stakeholder in the disability inclusion ecosystem to raise their voices against this injustice as there is no equity if a section of Nigeria continued to be maltreated openly.

The launching of the campaign is the first step in this order as many other activities will follow in the coming months until full compliance is noted.