Akufo-Addo gives hope to the Physically Disabled
The 2008 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the disabled in society to stop seeing themselves as incapable of standing up to the challenges of the 21 st century.
In a speech read on his behalf by Kwodwo Owusu Afriyie, in Kumasi, at a fund raising ceremony organized by the Ghana National Trust Fund, an NGO aimed at rendering financial aid to the disabled, orphans and various youth organizations, Nana Akufo-Addo said, “While discriminatory practices impede the advancement of many talented Ghanaians, the exploits of many disabled people, in history and in our contemporary lives, bear ample testimony to the saying that disability is not inability. The exploits of Helen Keller and Franklin Roosevelt elsewhere, as well as the achievements of Professor Gyimah Boadi, Head of the Centre for Democratic Development, Mr Amponsah Bediako, former Government Spokesperson on Social Services, Mr. Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary of the Convention Peoples Party and my own cousin, the famous singer, Pozzo Hayes, here at home, all show that some of the most gifted people have disabilities.
The disabled face obstacles in accessing public places, for business and convenience, in getting educational opportunities, in obtaining healthcare, in accessing transportation facilities in both the public and private realms and in getting employment. Chairperson, imagine being enrolled at any of our many Universities, where students routinely walk to lectures and climb multiple stories in buildings where elevators routinely do not work and we can begin to appreciate the challenges the disabled face. How does a disabled person get from Madina to Accra by 'tro-tro' when there is a struggle by many able-bodied people for every available seat?
How does a disabled person living in Kumasi access healthcare at Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital?”
Nana Akufo-Addo also called on Government to help the disabled attain their rights as full and equal citizens of our land.
He said, “Government must implement in full the laws on the books. This can be done by working to meet the goals of the 2006 Persons with Disabilities Act (Act 715) ahead of the ten-year implementation period envisaged by the legislation. This means an immediate commitment to ensure that every public facility constructed from now on will meet fully the standards necessary to provide full and equal access for the disabled, as well as beginning an aggressive effort to make old facilities compliant. We should all work together to shorten the 10 year period.
Second, government can commit more resources to the National Council on Disabled Persons to make it more effective.
Third, government must commit the necessary resources to make our educational institutions fully accessible to those with disability. Where such upgrades are not practical, consideration must be given to building special facilities equipped to meet the educational needs of the disabled.”
To the judiciary, Akufo-Addo said that “while our judiciary has been very active in the establishment of political rights, the judges can also play a very significant role in encouraging government and private bodies to live up to the standards determined by our laws and our Constitution, in the area of disability. We know that, sometimes, the wheels of government turn very slowly. It took government sixteen years to establish the Council on Disabilities whose establishment was directed by our Constitution. In the interim, it would have speeded things up if the disabled had sued and the court had given government a firm timeline to be in compliance with the Constitution. In the United States, for instance, the courts have been very instrumental in clarifying and sometimes in extending the rights of weak and small groups and such an attitude here will certainly be beneficial. Along these lines, I urge that organisations like CHRAJ take more interest in investigating and directing compliance to the relevant laws pertaining to the disabled.”
He called on the private sector to contribute their quota in making better the lives of the needy in society. He said that “while compliance with some of the requirements of the laws relating to the disabled will be expensive, I urge private businesses and recognizable associations to commit to supporting and encouraging their members as they strive to meet the reasonable standards required by our laws and demanded by our common humanity. The purpose of socially responsible business leaders, in addition to making profits, is to make our society better.”
To the public, Nana Akufo-Addo said, “I urge that we all commit to caring for our disabled brothers and sisters. This will take daily acts of kindness and courtesy, like helping the blind to cross our streets, stopping our vehicles for the disabled to pass and guiding them around our dangerous sidewalks. This task must summon from each and every one of us our best efforts.”
In conclusion, Nana Akufo-Addo declared that he totally disagrees to the notion that obligations to the disabled must await a future where our financial circumstances have improved.
He noted that “the work of bringing prosperity to our nation and reaching out to the weak, the poor, the sick and the disabled must proceed, hand in hand. As a maturing nation, we must, of necessity, be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. If America had insisted on waiting to solve all of its financial problems before tackling moral issues like racism and disability, it would be a far, far worse country than it is today.”