Women with disabilities suffer more trouble than their male counterparts. It is easier for a male with disability to be quickly employed than women with disabilities. Women with disabilities’ health are often not prioritised unlike other women without disabilities. These are facts and figures in Nigeria. But beyond all these daily challenges, abuses suffered by women with disabilities are grossly untold. There are constant sexual and gender violence not reported,. This is especially common with speech, hearing and visually impaired women. Their assailants know they cannot see or shout for help.
The issue of financial exclusion is also common, it will take great and personal determination of a woman with disabilities to be co-opted into the financial system.
In terms of health, women with disabilities suffer more to get attention. For women with mobility issues, finding their ways to hospital and health care facilities can be a herculean task. Assessing health facilities again is a big issue and ability to communicate with medical personnel plus verbal assault women with disabilities receive from nurses are untold.
Following the Centre for disability and Inclusion Africa recent Persons with Disabilities stakeholders’ policy dialogue which ran across the 6 states that made up the South West geo political zone of Nigeria with estimated 49 Million populations and about 4 million Persons with disabilities gave NGNews first hand exposure to some of the challenges Persons with disabilities with special interest in what Women with Disabilities go through.
Ishola Elizabeth, Women leader, JONAPWD Osun State state
From Lagos to Osun, to Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo states, the cry is almost the same. Ishola Elizabeth, Women leader of Joint Association of Persons with Disabilities(JONAPWD) maintained that women with disabilities face many assaults which are results of lack of adequate infrastructure which propel people to carry married women with disabilities in some facilities, marital challenges of society discouraging men without disabilities from marry a woman with one, Hospital attendants and medical personnel ill-treating women with disabilities among others.
In Oyo state, Women leader of JONAPWD, Alabi success decried absence of adequate accessibility tools, devices which hinder effectiveness of persons with disabilities with particular emphasis on Women with disabilities. The situation was not different in Ekiti state where the Women leader of JONAPWD in the state, Ogunkuade (a speech impairment woman)actually broke down in tears with regards to abuses suffered by women with disabilities especially when it comes to marriage.
Ogunkuade, Ekiti State JONAPWD women leader
According to her “Women with disabilities are often taken advantage of when they need a man to marry. Often they fall in the hands of deceivers who often use and dump them or in many cases use their nude pictures to illegally take money from them”.
On employment issues, Ogunkuade and Ishola said, women with disabilities need economic empowerment support too, so they can become useful to society.
Busayo Ademeko, Ondo state JONAPWD women leader
The case is not different in Ondo state where Busayo Ademeko, Women leader of JONAPWD affirmed challenges women with disabilities face in the area of marriage. Finding a spouse is often difficult, especially if a woman with disabilities prefers a man without disabilities. Aside from this, discrimination are rife in the treatment of women with disabilities with regards to finding employment, assessing health and medical care. The level of harassment and verbal assaults are unimaginable.
Fear of women with disabilities with regards to seeking Justice
But with regards to seeking legal redress for injustice, many security Agencies, especially Officers in charge of PWDs desks across the South West state from Osun to Ekiti and Ondo maintained, lack of willingness or boldness of women with disabilities to come forward and make reports are some of the reasons such injustice go unpunished.
Khadijat Bakare, Osun State NSCDC PWDs desk Officer
ASC Khadijat Bakare, Osun state Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps’ (NSCDC) PWDs desk officer affirmed in many cases, NSCDC had to go out of its way to seek redress for the injustice meted to women with disabilities when they hear of one but many of them would rather keep quiet.
DSC Yemisi Adejuwon, Ekiti state NSCDC PWDs desk Officer
In Ekiti DSC Adejuwon, who is the PWDs desk officer for NSCDC Ekiti maintained “Women with Disabilities need to come out and report abuses for security agencies to help”. According to her there are protocols of reporting abuses before Security Agencies are involved, if that is not followed, they will be incapacitated.
Femi Igbekele, Ondo State NSCDC PWDs Desk Officer
In Ondo, SC Femi Igbekele, NSCDC Ondo state PWDs desk Officer did say, “There may be challenges for some women with disabilities to get redress but these can be lessened if the victim steps out and report”. He cited a case of a speech impaired lady who was unjustly denied her rights because of her inability to share her side of the story. Femi Igbekele said he had to go and search for a sign language interpreter so as to get the woman’s side of the story and eventually she was released.
But more importantly, to actually forestall unnecessary harassment, Evangelist Olu Adegoke, former JONAPWD chairman in Oyo State, Folasade Arise, Disability Affairs board chairperson in Ondo State, Fatola, Executive Secretary, Ondo state Disability Affairs board, Ibiyale, director in the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social inclusion Oyo state all believed there is need for women with disabilities to know their rights and demands for them.
Ibiyale, Director, ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion , Oyo State
In most cases, according to all of these individuals, many victims had accepted their rights without knowing they all have rights to protection from abuses. Also, there is one common factor why some women keep quiet, their abusers are often close persons or carers and the thoughts of not having them again if picked up by security agencies often make them become silent.
Discriminations against Persons with Disabilities Acts 2019, State Disability Bills and State Disability Boards
In 2019, the federal government under President Buhari signed into law Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Acts(DAPDA) which was passed into law by the National Assembly in 2018 and this followed with establishment of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities. For most states who had passed Disability Bills, Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti among many others, the situation is almost the same- low awareness about the law and its agencies.
Adenike Oyetunde-Lawal, GM, Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs
Only Lagos seems to have an Agency that is known by majority even though some of its activities are still being questioned with regards to efficiency.
Oyo state passed disability bills in 2021 but the Agency activities are still in the infancy stage with no office structure. Ekiti state is not different as much. The conflicting nature of executive order that established the State disability board prior to Disability Bill promulgation had created a dichotomy that is not allowing effectiveness of the Agency.
Abanise, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Disability Matters, Ekiti State
It is also noted by concerned PWD stakeholders in Ekiti that Disability board members are just being selected and paid for doing nothing as they work part time. Yes, the state has a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Disability matters.
Persons with disabilities can also be the problem
Up until recently, Persons with disabilities in Lagos, this include Women with disabilities, had cried out against exclusion and lack of concern of the management of the state’s Disability Agency, Lagos Office of Disability Affairs led by Dare, towards issues affecting PWDs in the state. It took intervention of concerned stakeholders and media outcry to get Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to remove Dare and appoint his former Special Assistant on Disability, Adenike Oyetunde-Lawal in his stead.
Princess Folasade Arise, Chair Ondo State Disability Board
Princess Folasade Arise, the Chair of Ondo State Disability Board in a conversation with NGNEWs once affirmed “Some Persons with disabilities can also be a clog in the wheel of progress for Persons with Disabilities especially Women With Disabilities”. This can be true in the light of the fact that Dare who used to head LASODA is also a person with disability
But for Princess Folasade Arise, her concerns go deeper than the likes of Dare, in her words, as chair of the Disability Board in Ondo state, she had seen cases where a male person with disabilities, married to a woman with disabilities constantly abused their spouses. “How do we justify this?” Princess Arise asked?
Which way forward?
Looking at the loopholes established above with regards to why Women with Disabilities abuses continued, it is easy to mitigate some of the issues. Women with disabilities must seek knowledge about their rights as well as be empowered to stand up for these rights. Economic empowerment coupled with fundamental rights as well as self-awareness of who they are as humans will help.
The non-state actors in the PWDs community, which are the impaired, the affected and the concerned, must become active and collaborate. With this the community can put pressure on the state actor- policy makers and government to protect rights and privileges of women with disabilities in Nigeria
