People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) in Sokoto State have urged the new governor, Ahmed Aliyu, to provide them with skills acquisition programmes to enable them to contribute to the development of the state.
Patron of Joint People with Disabilities in the state, Hudu Isa Kebbe, made the call during a two-day disability inclusion training organized by USAID/State-2-State project.
Meanwhile, the Sokoto government has been providing N6, 500 monthly stipends to them.
However, Governor Aliyu during one of his campaigns, promised to sustain the programme, which was initiated during Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko’s administration.
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Isa-Kebbe, a visually impaired who is also the Vice Principal Administration of the Abdulrasheed Adisa Raji Special Schools, Sokoto, said their people need to be taught skills and trades and not the usual welfare package.
“We want to contribute to the revenue generation in the state through tax payment and others. We also want to be involved in decision making because some of us are graduates and we are doing well in our offices,” he said.
Speaking, the Gender and Social Inclusion Specialist of State-2-State, Ejiro Okotie, said the intervention was to ensure people with disability were carried along in budget processes and affairs of local government areas to make them contribute meaningfully to the development of the areas.
She added that participants were drawn from the Ministry for Local Government and four local government areas of the state.
