The Leprosy Mission Nigeria Calls For Inclusive Budgeting for Children with Disabilities

The Leprosy Mission Nigeria in collaboration with Qualitative Magazine has urged the Government to prioritize inclusive budgeting for children with disabilities, with advocates calling for increased allocation to support their education and welfare.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja, The National Director Leprosy Mission Nigeria Dr Sunday Udoh emphasized the need for the government to take concrete steps to address the challenges faced by children with disabilities. “It’s imperative that the government prioritizes their needs in the budget and ensures that they are not left behind, this includes providing accessible infrastructure, trained teachers, and assistive devices.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 2021 and World Health Organization (WHO) 2022, 10-15% of Nigerian Children live with one or more disabilities this includes physical, sensory, developmental, intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

He stated in his presentation that the Budget Gap is wide as Less than 0.3% of education spending addresses disability, about 0.1% of health budgets support disability-related services and No budget allocations specifically identify children with disabilities as a target group.

Hon Mohamed Abba Isa the senior special assistant (SSA) to the President on accessible and equal rights for persons with disabilities (PWDs) ably rep by Mr Lanre Oloyede said “The issue of disability inclusion has been the focus of projects, which is a specific borderline of children with disabilities.

The most advanced projects for inclusive education, assistive technologies, early childhood disability prevention and support services. Inclusive education is not a privilege, it is a right. We must move it to the next level.

Security systems, tools and inclusive education, are required by all children, regardless of ability, to comprehend what they are going through. We must embrace accessible school infrastructure, such as training teachers to support services that improve every child’s quality.

He stated that Under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the federal government has continued to promote good public service in our country, to provide protection and welfare for children with disabilities and His office is actively working to advocate for disability-inclusive projects across ministries, departments and agencies, to promote disability-inclusive activities, and to track our projects and initiatives for children with disabilities, especially children in high school and junior high school. We are working on these projects in all departments, in media, and in civil society, to assist our country and ensure that disability-inclusive solutions are used to improve the lives of children with disabilities and the federal government is working on that,

He urged all stakeholders, government, media, civil society and government partnership to sustain this conversation and continue to cooperate in this action as national and international partners.

Executive Director of Qualitative Magazine, Comrade Chris Agbo, mentioned that this is a call for conscience and a call to action across Nigeria. Millions of children with disabilities remain invisible in public planning and budgeting. When budgets are silent, services fail, services fail, rights are denied, when rights are denied, the future of the entire generation is placed at risk.

He urged the media to advocate for public understanding, reflecting policy priorities and holding duty bearers accountable. Through accurate, ethical and inclusive reporting, the media can ensure that the budget processes at national and sub-national level reflect the realities, needs and aspirations of children with disabilities. Children with disabilities cannot advocate for themselves and they rely on the media, their needs and aspirations. This movement is designed to strengthen your capacity to interrogate budgets, ask the right questions, amplify marginalized voices and tell stories that drive actions and reforms.

The mission of my Qualitative Magazine, has always been to be very clear, to change narratives challenge exclusion and promote policies and practices that uphold the dignity and the rights of persons with disabilities. He stated firmly that inclusive budgeting is not charity, it is justice, it is not optional, it is an obligation and needs to be  demanded for by stakeholders.

Chief  Ayuba Burki Gufwan, the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) said between 35 to 38 million Nigerians with disabilities and the budgeting, as far as the Commission is concerned, has been grossly inadequate.

He stated that since he has been in office, one of the biggest challenges that has confronted His administration is the struggle to get appropriate budget that is commensurate with this population, its entirety a specific budget that will capture the interests of children.

He mentioned that National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCFPWDs) should get a budget that is commensurate with the population, NCFPWDs should also a watchdog that put an eye on the finance of education, finance of agriculture, women affairs, all the other ministries and agencies of government to see that in the budget that they receive, in their various ministries, to what extent did they execute the budget in an inclusive manner, so that no one is left behind.

He appealed to all ministers, heads of agencies, and commissions to make their budget as inclusive as possible, because the drive in the disability community generally now is that no one should be left behind.