Relaunch Of These Abilities Foundation Report

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SPEECH DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE VP OSINBAJO AT THE RELAUNCH OF THESE ABILITIES FOUNDATION REPORT ON THE 7^TH OF OCTOBER, 2017

PROTOCOLS

First, let me say how privileged I am to be here at the re-launch of These abilities Foundation because for me the reason I said it is privileged is that first, it’s an opportunity to celebrate the memory of one the most outstanding innovators of our generation. A young man called Abioye Aboyeji and of course, I had the great pleasure and privilege of having interacted with him for many years I am a family friend of the Abioyes. Here was an individual so resilient, so committed to the course and so innovative that he carried everybody by the sheer force of his own enthusiasm and his commitment. I recall that in early 2015, when we were campaigning for the 2015 election at the time, he again invited me and several others to an event that was targeted to coincide with my birthday and we had an incredibly good time with all the various actors who worked in the area of giving all manner of support for “These Abilities.”

I just remembered how committed he was, innovative and creative he was. And even using the words “These Abilities” is evidence of his creativity of how so easily you can translate or transform a disadvantage into such great hope and such great advantage.

I think the second reason why one should be pleased to be here and I believe that is the same for all of us is that this is an opportunity to reignite that very great idea the “These Abilities Foundation”, is an outstanding advocacy vehicle standing for rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Indeed, mankind has not yet found a way of killing a good idea, you know whether we like it or not, whether we choose to do it or not, someone will and I think we have a very rare privilege or must feel special that we are in the position to promote this good idea and we can call ourselves partners in doing so.

I know that if we will work at this, it will not only be our pleasure, but we will also be fortunate to see how this foundation achieves its purposes. I just want to say by a way of comment that sometimes when you look at disabilities in our context and when I say in our context, I speak of our continent, issues of course are complicated by the fact of poverty and there is no way you can separate context from the way disability is treated or understood and if we understand the context of society such as ours with all of its inherent disadvantages, then it is not so difficult to see why we are where we are today in terms of how we treat the disabled and what opportunities are available.

I think anyone concerned with the issues of disabilities and the issues of inclusion must also take along, questions on how to deal with the issues of poverty in our society because the context is so important. For example, I have been able to work on prison conditions over the past few years and every time you talk about improving the issues of prison conditions, you have to look at the condition of society.

There are those who will tell you if you make the prison more comfortable, more people will want to go in there. These are the issues of context that one must take into account.

I want to say it is within our reach and within our scope as individuals and as persons active in society to talk about issues of poverty and deal with the issues of poverty. I functioned for many years not just as a teacher or as a professor of law, but as a lawyer and if may say so, an activist in the rights area, I also did a bit of work with an anti-corruption movement as it started in 1991. And it became very evident to me that one of the chief reasons our country is so poor is because of corruption, and the reason why corruption is pervasive is that we have accepted it one way or the other as a way of life for us.

We have accepted it, we even celebrate it and we allow it, I think that’s one of the chief problems of those of us who are trying to contest corruption and we cannot emerge and take our place in the committee of nations without dealing with corruption because it is the primary reason for poverty in our society. Our society has with it takes to build, and provide for most of us, it can do much but if that capacity is privatized, some people take that away and use it only for themselves and their friends.

Sometimes when you look at what goes on, many times when I look at social media and at the rate of corruption, it is very obvious that those who have the resources can dominate the argument or confuse the argument and make it seem like it is something other than what it is. For example, a person who is caught with a billion naira in his account, a civil servant who earns maybe N500,000 per month, and caught with a billion naira, ordinarily in any other society ought not to be able to walk the street easily, but here he has a waiting band of supporters who will say they belong to him, he is a Southwest person, he is from Ondo or he is from Ikenne, my town, for that reason he should not be caught and thrown in jail.

You will find out that they build arguments around that especially on social media, Why? Because those who have the resources can dominate the argument and I think it is important that we do not talk about issues that concern us without into the context of our society and making ourselves willing fighters against what it is that deters us from achieving our objectives and I think these are one of those things that deter us from achieving our objectives.

As I think about poverty as an issue with planning, one of the things I found in government is that the way we plan a budget is not necessarily inclusive because there are concepts around budgeting, there are economical concepts that are developed by those who understand the economics of budgeting and not necessarily those who understand poverty and how to deal with poverty. For example, some will say that a way to provide jobs is to ensure industries thrives and once industries thrive and things are working, people will get jobs. But in a poor society, you cannot wait because there are too many who are poor and you can’t have the industries growing at the rate the population grows, for example. There must be an adequate provision in some other ways – social investments, safety investments, and those sorts of things.

For the first time in the history of the country, we try to provide in thinking through the budget in 2016 and 2017 what is called a social investment program, which is essentially the beginning of the social safety net.

The whole point of the N500billion for social investment was to provide some kind of safety net of ensuring that we can work on inequality and work on the issues of poverty. So, this is meant to provide 500,000 jobs for graduates who have not been previously employed for two years and also training and it is also to provide cash for the poorest of the poor about a million, and also to provide some opportunities for micro-credit for market women, traders, artisans. It also provides social housing.

The most important part of the programme is that it provides, especially for persons with disabilities. The whole point is that the vulnerable, especially those with disabilities are taken care of in this arrangement but that is hardly enough because we have a huge problem, this is the beginning of thinking through budgeting not just at the Federal level, but at the State that a substantial provision must be made for trying to deal with the issue of inequality, especially the disadvantaged.

I must say I am extremely proud of what Lagos State has done and what it continues to achieve with the legislation and of course Lagos State Persons with Disabilities Funds. I think this is very important, I like the fact they are proactive and they are thinking about this on a regular and they have an office and the Governor himself is actively involved in it. The National Disabilities Bill is still in the second reading in the Senate. We hope that it will go through this time but I think that the most important thing is for the activists should be focused and be there at the National Assembly to work with the National Assembly and use social media.

I was at the Civil Society situation room in Abuja on Thursday and this is one of the issues that arose, how to ensure the passage of the disabilities bill? How do we ensure that the National Assembly is kept on its toes on these issues and ensure that it delivers upon passing the bill?  It is the function of civil society and many of us who are in this room to ensure that the effort is made. It requires a great deal of activism and also challenging our National Assembly members.

I believe very strongly that every challenge is ultimately an opportunity and the significance one gains in life and whatever that significance may mean is a function of what the challenge is and how we can surmount that challenge. That is so whether it is a disability or physical disability, or any other type of disability. I mean at the end of the day, the story of our lives and how what we attain or what we achieve will always be measured by what challenges we were able to surmount. I believe that the reason why we celebrate a man like Abioye today is that he worked hard and surmounting not just the physical challenge, but confronted that challenge in a way that will benefit society. I think that is so important.

When I look around this room and I ask myself, aside from the professors who are here like Professor Abioye, we are forced to be writers, but I don’t know how many other people have written books, but those who mind writing books are very special and very important and here we have with us, Toyin Adesola. I see that she didn’t even raise her hands, but she is an author and has also written books on disabilities, an outstanding author for that matter and I have had the pleasure of reading her book.

The book is called “Still Standing”, a story of her life and childhood, of how she had to deal with the chronic issues of sickle cell, what she’s become, her advocacy, her works and when you look at it, it is one of the most insightful books on any topic you will ever read. I think it is a great inspiration for many people.

When you ask yourself, what is it that makes it possible to write such a deeply touching book that educates? A book that opens your mind in that way? It comes from a place of having suffered in some senses, having felt the challenge and deal with the challenge. It is impossible to do this unless you have been there. Nobody can write a book on living with sickle cell if you haven’t had sickle cell and I think that people like herself have been able to use a challenge to bless the world and to teach others, is an incredible testimony of what we as humans can do to better our society regardless of what our circumstances may be.

I am glad to be here and to be a part of this, thank you.