FROM PAUL ORUDE BAUCHI
The Joint Association of People Living with disabilities from Bogoro, Tafawa Balewa and Dass federal constituency of Bauchi State, has appealed to the their representative and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to establish a rehabilitation and skill acquisition centre for the physically challenged people in the area.

Chairman of the association, Mr Yohanna Mbula, made the appeal in Bogoro on Thursday when hundreds of the physically challenged including the blind, the lame, deaf, cripple came to Dogara”s country home at Gwarangah in Bogoro to pray and show their appreciation to the Speaker for the assistance he has been rendering to them.

Mbula observed that poverty and unemployment were high among the people of Bogoro, Dass and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas of the constituency, adding that poverty is more pronounced among the physically challenged people in the area.

He expressed the hope that a rehabilitation centre if established will help in attending to the economic and social needs of the physically people of the constituency by both the government and well meaning individuals and reduce poverty saying that most of the physicality challenged in the area have been abandoned.

“We are here to thank the speaker Honourable Yakubu Dogara because he is one of the few elected politicians that always remember us that are living with disabilities. Hundreds of us have benefitted from his assistance.

“Unfortunately sometimes people divert the assistance that Dogara is giving to us for their own selfish needs. God made us in his own image. We may be blind, or our body disabled but our minds are good and we are not beggars. What we need is the support of government and we’ll meaning individuals to make our contributions to our society,” he said.

Related News

He said that the physically challenged from the area are yet to enjoy the programmes of the Federal government such as N-power.

Mbula however expressed gratitude to the minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Hajia Jummai Alhassan for recently donating food items to the people of the state.

Responding, the Special Assistant to the Speaker Zac’s Mamani who received the physically challenged. said he was touched by the large number of physically challenged people who turned up at the Speaker’s house in Gwarangah to register to their appreciation.

Mamani said he was happy with the gesture adding “your cry for establishment of a rehabilitation centre would be conveyed to the Speaker saying it has always been his desired to wipe the tears of the less privileged.

“You are not beggars but the Speaker will contribute to assist and support you won’t be. We hope that others will follow your gesture by praying for their leaders and showing understanding instead of always criticizing them, ” he said.