Sandra D Nyamekye
11 November 2004
The President of the Ghana Society of the Physically Disabled (GSPD), Mr. Christopher Kisseih has reiterated that members of the society would not participate in the forth-coming general election if the political parties that failed to attend a recent lecture organized to highlight the plight of the disabled, do not provide explanation.
The British Council and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative on October 4, organized a lecture for the disabled under the theme: Enforcing Voting Right of People Living with Disabilities. All the political parties were invited but only the National Reform Party showed up.
This has been interpreted by the members of the society as a total disregard and neglect of them by the political parties.
Speaking to The Chronicle yesterday, Mr. Kisseih said they were very disappointed at the behavior of the parties.
"It was a total disrespect for the welfare of persons with disability by the politicians," he said.
He noted that this was the right time for politicians to include the disabled in their campaign, since they constitute about 10% of the country's population of about 20 million.
He said if the politicians were wise enough, they would have grabbed this opportunity and explained to their policies on the disabled.
He added that they were expecting the parties to come forward, if not to explain to them why they could not honour the incitation to the lecture, to tell them their policies for the forth-coming election. "We want them to approach us and tell us their policies."
He said politicians should also consider the physically challenged as Ghanaians and involve them in their campaigns.
He reminded politicians on both sides of the political divide that disability could be anyone's lot at any time, therefore the disabled must be considered and respected.
He believed that if the politicians had attended the programme just like the National Reform Party did, they would have thrown more light on the issue of disability.
When contacted, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Dan Botwe said he was not aware of any lecture organized for the Disabled by the British Council and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, therefore had no idea what was going on.
An attempt by the paper to elicit comments from the NDC proved futile.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 Ghanaian Chronicle. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
