3 months ago
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A viral video showed policemen brawling with Hamza Waziri, who was on a wheelchair, during the #EndBadGovernance protest in Bauchi State. The Chevening scholar tells UMAR SANI about his travails in the hands of the security operatives, the plight of people living with disabilities in Nigeria and more, in this interview
Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Hamza Waziri Muhammad and I am the Chairman, Initiative for The Liberalisation of Physically Challenged People in Nigeria. It is an integrated non-governmental organisation that focuses on providing remedy to social issues, welfare, job opportunities and education for people with disabilities all over the country. I am the former Chairman, Bauchi State Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
Can you tell us what transpired before the police attacked you in front of the Bauchi State Government House during the end bad governance protest?
On August 1, we answered the call to step out and register our displeasure with the current economic situation in the entire country. We (people with disabilities) are not an exception because it’s as a result of accumulated problems that people with disabilities in the state face. A lot of us are graduates. I completed my NYSC in 2018 with a state honours award that qualified me to be employed or given a scholarship opportunity but I received none. And I did not bother much to be employed by government, I initiated a business called Able and Capable Enterprises that comprises a carwash and a small eatery at Dogon Yaro Roundabout (Bauchi) for the main purpose of employing myself and people like me, people with disabilities with the aim of paying them then N18,000, which was the minimum wage. And I can beat my chest and say that I was able to pay that N18,000 to almost all my employees then. In June, I went to Abuja for a job I was promised but I didn’t get anything. Upon my return to Bauchi, I hadn’t even entered my house when I was served a quit order of 48 hours, stating that I was constituting nuisance through my business that had been running for seven years on the land that was approved by the government, who even dug a borehole for us there, so that we could support ourselves. So, that business was destroyed and no compensation paid. We decided that ‘okay let’s step out and register our displeasure,’ so, that the government would look at us with the eyes of mercy and give these people, all the graduates, employment opportunities. Our placards had the inscriptions, ‘No to job nepotism’, ‘Jobs should be inclusive, not only the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful politicians’, ‘End bad governance’, ‘Where is our five per cent quota?’ Yes, I know there is a law in this country that mandates government to allocate five per cent quota in all employments (to people with disabilities). So, this is what my placards had. And the nine other people that were with me, I specifically instructed them to write on their placards the course they studied, the year they graduated and the honours they have. And we marched to the Government House just to tell the Governor to look at us with the eyes of mercy. We know this is our right, but we won’t say we are demanding. We are saying that we are peacefully asking for you to employ these people because you rendered us jobless at the moment and the law that should be implemented is not implemented. So, that is exactly what happened. At the Government House I started a live video, I was not even at the gate, I was far off. Suddenly, one of the police officers jumped the fence and grabbed the phone from the person that was recording me. If you check my social media you’ll see I was doing the live video, explaining our ordeals. Then they started coming and saying ‘why are you here?’ This is the place to protest, and I was like I know my rights. I implemented a project in this state in 2022 on know your right to fight police brutality. So, I was very peaceful and civil at the same time. I told the police officers that I just came to register my displeasure and I’m peaceful and civil, so we shouldn’t have any issues. Before I knew it, the police officers jumped on the person recording me, so, I decided to get my phone. They alleged that I recorded their faces but if you look at the video clearly, there is no face of any police officer that was captured. It was in the process one of them, whose name is A.S. Shira, wrestled with me, trying to grab the phone, while the other officer gave me punches. They destroyed my phone and the video stopped. Fortunately, passersby recorded the incident and that’s how the footage of the brutality meted out against me by the police officers went viral. While this was happening, one of the CSOs from the Government House came and consulted with us, that this is not the right time to protest. He said, ‘you have the right. We know it is your right to do that but there is tension in the state.’ He was able to calm down the situation and said we could come back later in the day and show our displeasure and even have access to the governor.
Did you sustain any level of injury?
Actually, as I am speaking to you right now, I am still in pain. I feel serious pain in my ribs. I went to the hospital two times to get x-ray and to see a doctor, but the Nigerian factor came up, there was no network.
So, are you going to file legal charges against the police?
Yes, hopefully. I am in contact with the association of lawyers with disabilities in Nigeria and hopefully I’ll get their response soon because we already had a meeting. I strongly believe that injustice to one is injustice to all. So, they (lawyers) came to my rescue and I am seeking for justice because I was brutalised by the police. And I hope that justice will be served.
There is an aide to President Bola Tinubu on PWDs, who is also physically challenged. It’s the same in some states, as well. Are they doing enough to meet the demands of the PWD community?
One thing I will say here is that majority of us, when we assume power, fail to continue being advocates. We become politicians. They forget the fundamentals of what it takes to be an advocate. And that means advocating for each and every member of the country or each and every member of the society that is living with a disability. Let’s start with employment, go round the Federal Government agencies, are they implementing the five per cent quota? We are not talking about advocacy right now, we are supposed to be talking about implementation because this was signed into law since 2018, and there was a five-year transitional period, which elapsed months back. How many parastatals of government have they sued? How many places are accessible in the country? Let me give you an example, I applied for PTDF scholarship in 2021. I was privileged to be interviewed, but out of the 350 slots, no single person with a disability was given the opportunity to travel abroad and study. And we have a commission. I was there and the only thing they could help me with was a recommendation letter. I tried as much as possible with the outgoing secretary to come let’s go together and meet the secretary (PTDF), that we needed a favour and we wanted the law to be followed. But it didn’t happen. So, this is in education sector, go to our schools and see. How many of them are accessible? Go to our universities. How are people with disabilities coping? How many of us are into businesses supported with grants? We have a long way to go.
You’ve highlighted the problems of people living with disabilities in the country. What do you think should be done help them live better lives?
It goes with the saying, ‘nothing for us without us.’ If they want to bring us on board, they should, that’s what should be done. We know our problems, we should be included in all the aspects of governance and all the parastatals of government, not only when it comes to charity. We should be included in the banking, agricultural and educational sectors as well, and all the juicy parastatals of government. So, government should look inwards and bring us on board, because we have a lot of potential and talents.
Do you have proof to show that people with disabilities aren’t properly represented in government parastatals?
Five per cent quota for people with disabilities is huge, but if you go to CBN, how many of them will you be able to count. Go to NCC or NNPC, even if you find a representative there, he’s probably the son of somebody, he is privileged. Why? Nepotism. Appointments and employment should be based on merits. What are you bringing to the table? It’s not just because you know somebody and somebody knows you. But that’s what is happening. We need to be properly represented, not only because I’m a son of somebody or my dad is a Senator and because of that I am a PWD, so, they will mandate their agencies to employ me. I was done with my NYSC since 2018. I never had the opportunity to be interviewed in this country. I left two jobs in the UK. I came back to this country January 29 to be precise, upon the instruction of my mentor because I’m a Chevening scholar. So, you can imagine how many years now. I am 32 now and I don’t even know where to apply to because the jobs are not advertised. They just give offers to those they want to employ. And this is not an allegation; you can prove it beyond reasonable doubt. This is what is happening. Now it is only politicians that employ people.
Economic conditions in Nigeria have reached an all-time low. How has this affected PWDs?
It has affected us tremendously because we face double problems. More than 90 per cent of us earn a leaving via begging. You know the common man now doesn’t even eat properly, so, how do you expect us to cope? We hardly have three square meals per day, even we that are seen as privileged, right now. I’m not doing anything right now. I’m a business person, I ran a business for seven years and it was destroyed, and it’s not only me. I had more than 10 employees working with me. Five are PWDs and all of them right now are rendered jobless and nowhere to go. We are between the rock and the hard surface, in the middle of a mess. So, if we do not go to the streets to protest and show our displeasure, what should we do? A lot of us are dying. That is how serious this situation is because a lot of us eat once a day. And the government is not looking towards us. All they are focused on is politics. They say we have representatives, listen to the comments of these representatives, they still think that they are campaigning. All you hear is ‘the government will do this, the government will do that.’ We want action, not words.
What is the condition of people living with disabilities in Bauchi particularly?
Majority of them have migrated to neighbouring states because where they were centralised mostly in Wunti. That is where you see them running on skateboards, trying to look for what to eat every day. The place is under construction, so majority of them left. When you go to Jos, you will see them on the streets. Those of us that are educated are here, but depression has already started setting in. We are brutalised by the police when we step out to ask for our rights. We have been marginalised to the extent that our lives are threatened and it has reached a level where the government is asking media houses to take down the video that showed how I was brutalised by the police. They are trying to silence us by all means, instead of addressing the problems that we are currently facing. What were we asking for? We were just asking for employment opportunities. For God’s sake, we are citizens of this country. I left Nigeria country to study abroad and and I came across a video of a physically challenged person going into kidnapping. That’s where we are now. The security forces themselves don’t know how to tackle this problem. Imagine 35 million of us not having a proper way to even have a decent life in the community.
As the CEO of the Initiative for Liberalisation of Physically Challenge People in Nigeria, how have you been able to impact the lives of PWDs in the country?
Well, in my own capacity, I have impacted the lives of PWDs positively in so many ways. Taking you back down memory lane during COVID-19, I invited some of you (journalists) to captured when I was distributing items because both the federal and state governments didn’t capture us in the COVID-19 relief materials. I was able to help 200 of my PWDs here in Bauchi State. I was able to secure fully funded scholarships for all the people living with disabilities in the state. If they wanted to study for free, they could attend Tatari Ali Polytechnic to study for free. Recently, I paid for more than 20 JAMB slots for PWDs. I built a business to employ people like me, and I ran the business for seven years but was recently destroyed by the state government without compensation. I have mentored more than 20. I came back to the country with one of my mentees in the United Kingdom, he studied in London. He is in Egypt for computer training. I’m the first person who built a PWD friendly toilet at Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic. So, I have done a lot. I have my PWDs in computer training. We have people that can operate computers, but there is no empowerment whatsoever from philanthropists in the state and from the government. So, like I said, ‘we are between the rock and the hard surface.’ We have nowhere to go, and the little we can do is to step out and show our displeasure, but we have been faced with brutalisation by the police. And the government is trying to silence us by all means possible.
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