KANO (North-West, Nigeria) — A former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano (BUK), Professor Muhammad Yahuza Bello, has made fresh case for Persons living with Disabilities, saying thousands of highly educated and skillfully hands-on trained PWDs are abandoned, roaming the streets jobless.
This was as he decried the refusal by employers of Labour in the country to employ qualified PWDs into their workforce.
Professor Muhammad Bello spoke on the sideline of this year’s JAMB/UTME for Blind Candidates at the Kano Centre.
He explained that ‘other than one form or the other of disability or a physical challenge’ Persons with Disabilities are talented and intelligent. “Those tried, engaged and shouldered with responsibilities are doing well and their Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, surpasses their able-bodied working colleagues”.
Speaking in an emotionally laden tone, Yahuza Bello, a Professor of Mathematics who is Kano Centre Coordinator of the JAMB Equal Opportunity Group, JEOG, organizers of the UTME for Candidates with Special needs, recalled how he was recently close to tears seeing a deaf graduate of Chemistry doing a menial job as a daily paid Labourer at a private residential building construction site.
He said the unemployed Chemistry graduate told him that he applied to many organizations for a job relevant to his discipline but was not engaged ostensibly because he was deaf.
A Press Statement issued in Kano by a member of JAMB Civil Society and Media Group monitoring the UTME, Abdulkadir Ahmed Ibrahim, quoted the former BUK Vice Chancellor appealing to Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), Civil Societies and other Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to engage Governments at all levels and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) to address issues of employment discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.
He called for total compliance and full implementation of the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Legislation that mandates, among others, that at least 5% of public-sector jobs be reserved for people with disabilities (PWDs) and prohibits workplace discrimination.