Stanley Ugboaja
Deputy National Organising Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Nze Chidi Duru has advocated the inclusion of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in leadership positions.
Nze Duru also urged the PWDs to vote for all APC candidates in the 2023 general elections to ensure continued improvement in the quality of their lives.
The APC Chieftain stated this at the maiden edition of the Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) Summit for State, Zonal and National leaders held on Thursday, August 4, 2022, at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
Nze Duru stated that the 2023 general election would be a defining moment for the country, adding that the support of PWDs would be instrumental in ensuring that the APC achieves success at the polls.
“APC is indeed different and in a class of its own. Neither the divide of religion, tribe, gender, or disabilities would put asunder in our quest of providing the hope that the people of Nigeria rightly deserve,” he disclosed.
APC National Leader, PWDs, Hon. Tolu Bankole said the event is a platform to amplify the need for fair and equitable inclusion of PWDs in all the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Hon. Bankole stated that the group would set up an all-inclusive PWDs campaign structure to the polling units level, to work for the victory of the APC presidential ticket; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima, as well as that of gubernatorial aspirants and other candidates of the party.
“To achieve this, we ask that PWDs must be involved in all the campaign structures of the party at the national level and various states by setting up PWDs directorate to accommodate the peculiarities of the PWDs community.
“We would set up PWDs Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu/Shettima 2023 immediately to ensure victory, knowing that APC is for Nigerians and Nigerians are for APC.”
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the infrastructural revolution of his government and for holding PWDs in high esteem.
“We appreciate the special place our hero, President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR played to ensure that PWDs retain their prominent status as guaranteed in the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 when he signed it into law. The PWDs reckoned that the president’s infrastructural revolution in the country is historic and history will be kind to him.
“Like Oliver Twist, we call on our dearest President to complete his love for PWDs by appointing PWDs as Minister, members of Federal boards and parastatals in his cabinet to finally put a nail on the coffin of discrimination, stigmatization, and rejection of PWDs in Nigeria.”
Furthermore, Nze Duru appealed to state governors, who he described as leaders of the party in their domains, to give listening ears to PWDs leaders in the zones and states in order to fulfill the mandate of political, economic, and social inclusion of PWDs in APC.
Below are some of the exclusive pictures taken at the event.
