………Describes him as champion of Disability Bill.
The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), Hon. Ayuba Gufwan has added his voice to tributes pouring in from all over the world regarding the life and times of late President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
Gufwan also mourning the demise of the late President descibed him as a champion of Inclusion and defender of the vulnerable.
He recalls that in the annals of Nigeria’s democratic and military history, few leaders have carried the weight of both war and peace with such determined resolve as the late President did having fought valiantly to preserve the unity of our nation, and returning decades later as a civilian President with a renewed mission to fight for the dignity, recognition, and rights of the persons with disabilities.
Gufwan said President Buhari’s administration made history in a way no other had, particularly for listening to the yearnings of Nigerians living with disabilities.
Describing the former President as a listening leader, he said the late leader through deliberate and unprecedented action, appointed Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) into sensitive national offices — as Senior Special Assistants (SSA) and Special Assistants (SA) to ensure that voices of PWDS were heard in the polity.
He added that President Muhammadu Buhari’s most enduring legacy for the disability community came in January 2019 when after years of advocacy and delay he signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act.
He said the transformative piece of legislation guaranteed equal rights, access, and protection for the 35 million Nigerians with disabilities.
He noted that the singular act of assent gave birth to the National Commission for Persons With Disabilities which was a long-overdue institution mandated to oversee and uphold the rights, welfare, and inclusion of PWDs across the country.
According to him, “this was not just a legal act — it was a moral one.” Says Gufwan.
He stated further that it was a declaration that in President Buhari felt in Nigeria, no one should be left behind.
The Executive Secretary NCPWD said President Muhammadu Buhari did not just wear the title of Commander-in-Chief; he embodied the true spirit of leadership by giving voice and visibility to those whose lives for long existed in the shadows of exclusion.
He said the late President would be remembered as a leader whose effort at national unity is not just in words but hinged on making sure the most vulnerable have a place in the society.
“Today, as the nation and indeed the world mourns the former president, the PWD community reflect on his contributions, and wish to state that he dared to do what others only promised by words. He stood with the forgotten to legislate dignity and make inclusion a national policy.”
Signed
Kigbu Ishaku, (anipr)
Head, Media and Publicity,
National Commission for Persons with Disabilities
