2023 Elections: Don’t undermine persons living with disability — Epelle

In the build up to the 2023 general elections, the Founder, The Albino Foundation (TAF), Mr Jake Epelle, says Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) should not be undermined as they make up a large portion of eligible voters.
Epelle said this on Thursday in Abuja during an interview with the Newsmen
According to him, the total number of PWDs who are eligible to participate in the general elections in 2023 is about 84,000.
He added that “that is just the number of those who have taken part in the present exercise. It is not inclusive of the previous PWDs who have registered.
“My estimation is that we are going to constitute about 16 per cent of the entire eligible voters. In other words, 16 per cent of 90 million expected eligible
voters across the country, that number can change the tide of the result of an election.
“So, for anybody who is serious about ensuring inclusive election and getting inclusive voting, you should not undermine PWDs, we can change the course
of this election and that is my dream.
“That our people will become so politically conscious and participatory, that our numbers can determine who becomes the president of the country.
“That way, we can then go to that person and say, we voted you, give us what we are demanding.”
Epelle, however, said that it was not a call for PWDs to vote a particular candidate as he was strictly apolitical and would not endorse any particular candidate.
On the recently inaugurated “Able2Vote” project which was inaugurated by The Albino Foundation (TAF), he said it was to address the high level of voter apathy
among PWDs.
He said “we launched a project called Able2Vote, which is strictly a voter education campaign to reduce to the barest minimum the issues around voter apathy among
PWDs and we have gone round all the six geopolitical zones with the campaign.
“We have had enormous impact and demand because now states are asking us when will you come to our state?”.
The TAF founder also said that the project was designed to further enlighten PWDs in general on what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
had in stock for them in the forthcoming elections.
According to him, it is a programme that brings INEC and the community face to face with each other to ask and answer questions and also give
demonstrations of how they will vote.
“Of course it is on the heels of the Electoral Act so now it is mandated by law that the electoral process must be inclusive.
“It is no longer going cap in hand, begging anyone to please give us priority voting or give us magnifying glasses or Braille or sign language.
“It is now a law that if INEC does not carry it out, anyone can take INEC to court”, he added.
Epelle said that lots of awareness and consciousness had been generated after the Able2Vote campaign and PWDs were looking for partnerships,
opportunities to scale up the intervention.
“We will do whatever we can to make sure that we scale up participation, some of the little efforts we have made have yielded results.
“For the first time we are going to have about 15 PWDs contest in the forthcoming elections, usually you have two or three but now 15.
“We are going to teach them how they can couch their campaign messages and get the expected attention, how they can raise funds,
crowdfunding, but also how they can build political structures.
“We will get them to understand skills that are required when they assume office.
“So, apart from our campaign to get PWDs to vote, our campaign is to get the electorate vote PWDs. So, what we say is we want to vote
and we want to be voted for.”
Epelle said that they were also beginning to hold the presidential candidates accountable.