Just last December, the United Nations marked the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, reinforcing global commitment to disability inclusion in all aspects of social, economic, cultural and political life.
Of the roughly 7 million children in Nigeria who have disabilities, 95.5 per cent are out of school due to multiple systemic barriers, including inaccessible schools, stigma and cultural biases. As such, only a very small fraction of these children are enrolled and attending school.
Nigeria has the highest number of out of school children in the world. Statistics show that 10.5 million of these children are out of school, and a disproportionate number have disabilities. These children are more likely to never attend school compared to their peers without disabilities.
These staggering numbers are mostly invisible. In many African homes, children and adults with disabilities are often treated as hidden figures, shrouded in mystery as family secrets, kept away in the silence of shame and rarely spoken about.
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For instance, growing up, I always thought my father was the only son of his mother, but I discovered as an adult that I had an uncle.
I understand my uncle was quite accomplished. As a Nigerian student in 1950s America, he enrolled at Lincoln University, a historically Black college and university in Pennsylvania, alongside notable African greats such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, first President of Nigeria, and Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister of Ghana.
He returned to Nigeria and became somewhat of an activist in local politics. But when his psychological disability manifested in adulthood, what happened next is difficult to piece together. Through my constant questioning, I learnt that he spent the next five decades in an institution of sorts, a hidden figure who was never spoken about.
I wonder how many people with disabilities from that era were kept hidden and disappeared into obscurity. This discriminatory exclusion of persons with disabilities is still prevalent in African society today. Persons with disabilities include people with physical, intellectual, developmental, sensory or psychological disabilities.
I suppose my uncle experienced short lived success as a person with disability who had access to formal education, compared to the millions of children with disabilities who are excluded from education across Nigeria, missing out on opportunities to live full lives and contribute meaningfully to society rather than being viewed as a burden.
To be sure, special education facilities, both government and private, such as the Pacelli School for the Blind and Partially Sighted, Wesley School for the Hearing Impaired and other facilities catering to multiple disabilities do exist in Nigeria. However, these are sparse, urban centred and incapable of reaching the millions of children with disabilities across the country. In my opinion, they function more as care centres rather than centres of learning where children are equipped with skills that foster knowledge, independence and hope for the future. I contend that these facilities inadvertently reinforce discrimination and segregation of children with disabilities, further adding to an overall sense of incompleteness as human beings.
In Lagos where I live, a city of 21 million people with over 1 million children of school age, only 17 of 1,001 public primary schools reportedly provide special education services - a glaring access gap, with many families still experiencing discrimination and increased pressure to hide their children living with disabilities. The pursuit of quality education also creates additional financial constraints, as parents from low income communities may not have the financial means to access private special education schools with better facilities.
Children with disabilities are often deprived of quality education, lack skills to enter the labour market and, more often than not, face futures of dependency, lack of independence and lifelong poverty and hardship.
Furthermore, laws and policies to protect the rights of children with disabilities do exist but are not uniformly enforced. The Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 mandates the right to education without discrimination and provides for free education up to secondary school. In addition, Nigeria has a National Policy on Inclusive Education and a National Policy on Special Needs Education, which aim to promote inclusive education, access and equity for learners with special needs. The problem is not the lack of laws and policies, but rather the lack of effective implementation to protect and support children with disabilities.
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Government must act beyond legislation and ensure large scale implementation, including special education teacher training, addressing infrastructure deficits, and ensuring the availability of assistive learning and assessment tools across all tiers of education to give these children a chance to realise their potential and exercise their human rights. Political will, commitment and sustained investment in inclusive education must become reality. Otherwise, we will continue to deny the rights of persons with disabilities and lose opportunities to strengthen Nigeria's human resource capacity.
As a society, we must also commit to changing our discriminatory mindsets and cultural biases through awareness, acceptance, advocacy and by giving a voice to the voiceless while shining light into those dark hidden spaces, even within our own families.
I learnt my uncle lived long into his late 80s.
I don't even know his name.
He still remains hidden, even in death.
Jadesola is the Co-Founder of STEM METS and a Public Voices Fellow Tackling Poverty, a partnership of Acumen and The OpEd Project.
