By: Ilyasa Baa
Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues (SLUDI) has expressed gratitude to the Government of Sierra Leone for introducing Free Quality Education (FQE) and supporting Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) at to University level which has helped empower a good number of them with the first and Masters degrees.
According to the Acting President of SLUDI, Salieu Turay, some PWDs are capable enough to represent their districts very well in the forthcoming elections. He said with the knowledge attained, a PWD can perform much better than some of those that are not physically challenged.
He said over the years, PWDs have proven to be fit and hard-working citing Adama Conteh in the Makeni City Council who had been Councillor for two terms and now running for the Deputy Mayor position. He said there had been a cabinet minister and a Member of Parliament who performed extremely well as PWDs especially Hon. Julius Koffee who was one of the drafters of the PWDs Act that created the Commission for Persons with Disability.
Salieu Turay is calling on all political parties to allocate seats to PWDs as the nomination process fast approaches. He said they are going to reach out to all the seventeen registered political parties for inclusion of PWDs to be holders of Parliamentary or Local Council seats in these elections.
It could be recalled that at the Constitutional Review process, members of the disabled community called for five reserved seats in Parliament for PWDs but the recommendations of the CRC have not been implemented so far.
Nonetheless, the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) has in its recent Act factored or mainstreamed disability issues within the political landscape of Sierra Leone.
