The time is ticking for all stakeholders to fulfil the promises of the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018, and now more than ever is when reminders are needed if the history of the law has taught us anything.

The bill was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari just two years ago after it lingered in the National Assembly for eighteen years.

In addition to prescribing a punishment of 100,000 Naira in fine or 6-month jail term for persons who violate the law as well as 1,000,000 Naira fine for corporate entities; the law provided a 5-year window for public buildings, structures or automobiles to be modified to be accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities. That window is fast closing two years later.

Recounting his experience using Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for two weeks, journalist Trust Inonse, who lives with visual impairment noted that while attendants are generally kind, the system falls short in accessibility.

“The BRT imagines that everyone who enters the bus knows where they’re going to,” he said in a video he posted on his Instagram page, “for people like me who can’t see there should be a [way] to announce the bus stop, where we are and where we are going next.”

This, while available in some of the busses, isn’t available in many.

A moment’s conscious appraisal of the BRT alone reveals further failings. Wheelchair accessibility remains absent. A brief investigation of the stretch of road from Ojuelegba to Costain confirmed this.

The curriculum of every primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions are also to include:

(a) learning of Braille;

(b) sign language;

(c) augmentative and alternative communication skills;

(d) peer support and Mentoring.

There doesn’t appear to be any attempts by those in charge to pursue this with the seriousness it warrants.

According to the World Health Organisation, in 2018, about 29 million of the 195+ million people who comprise Nigeria’s national population were living with a disability.

The time for urgency was eighteen years overdue until January 2019 when the law finally came into force, the lack of increased urgency 2 years after, should be worrying to all and sundry.

Nigerians living with a disability deserve access in every sphere of the country and we are fast losing time in closing the yawning gap of access that persists in the country.