The unjust humiliation suffered by Deborah Daniel and her family at the KFC outlet at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos last week should have been a lesson in human dignity and the dire need for true social inclusion in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the reaction of the airport authorities will ensure that Nigerians remember this incident (if they remember it at all) as another example of official carelessness and high-handedness.
After passing through airport security, Daniel and his family decided to spend the night at a KFC, only to be informed by the manager that wheelchairs were not permitted inside the restaurant – a policy that was clearly inhumane and discriminatory, and which the manager confidently repeated even after Daniel’s wife and brother raised doubts.
detail:
Nigeria
Social issues
human rights
religion
Sub-Saharan Africa
Daniel, a well-known disability rights advocate, Posted on social media He described his ordeal: “Today I felt less than human. Like a guard dog that wasn’t allowed in the house. I felt alone and isolated.”
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The official response to what Daniel described as “the worst public humiliation I have ever experienced” was swift. Adam Abdullahi, acting deputy chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), condemned Daniel’s mistreatment, saying it was “not only illegal, but inhumane and contrary to the values that we as a society cherish.” He promised to “work closely with the relevant authorities to ensure that appropriate compensation is provided to consumers affected by this incident and that the KFC outlet in question is held fully responsible for its actions.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has gone a step further, closing the KFC outlet after a swift investigation and demanding an “unconditional apology” to Daniel and an anti-discrimination policy statement “to be prominently posted on the doorpost of the MMIA premises before it reopens.”
The reasons for the unusually swift (and in FAAN’s case, legally questionable) response from the authorities are not far-fetched. Daniel is not an ordinary Nigerian with a disability, but the son of Mr. Gbenga Daniel, a former state governor and current senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. While the fact remains that Daniel and his companions should not have been treated as they were, the question remains whether the authorities would have done their best if the victim had been an ordinary Nigerian with no family ties. After all, as Daniel himself pointed out, the KFC manager reaffirmed that it is standard policy to deny wheelchair users entry, suggesting that Daniel is not the first disabled person to be unfairly humiliated by the establishment. If wheelchair users were supposed to have lodged formal complaints before, why was there no response? Daniel also pointed out that the elevators had been out of service for “the past three years” when he would normally use the lounge. Which begs the question: If FAAN truly cares about ensuring that people with disabilities can access the airport’s services and facilities, as its swift response suggests, then why has the elevator been left out of service for three years?
Unintentionally, FCCPC and FAAN highlighted an uncomfortable Nigerian truth: that being born into the right family is more important than being right in receiving social goods and services.In light of this, it seems more likely that the reaction of FCCPC and FAAN was driven by fear of incurring the wrath of or pleasing Senator Daniel, a powerful politician, than by any genuine heartache at the embarrassment of disabled people.
detail:
Nigeria
Social issues
human rights
religion
Sub-Saharan Africa
If anyone understands the systemic stigma faced by people with disabilities in Nigeria, it is Daniel himself. He put it“Being disabled in Nigeria is undesirable, unwelcome and unacceptable. As I have said before, it is a lonely, frightening and isolating place.” Not only is Daniel right, but having an honest and much-needed dialogue about why disabled people are prone to subhuman treatment everywhere in the country would have been more productive than closing KFC outlets and extracting a quick apology.
A 2022 report by Abuja-based Agora Policy on the situation of persons with disabilities in Nigeria paints a dire picture: “Only 1% of persons with disabilities are employed in the formal sector, only 2% have access to education, 92% are in dire need of rehabilitation services, 96% have no access to assistive devices, and 98.5% of public buildings are inaccessible to persons with disabilities.” In other words, persons with disabilities take a backseat in the Nigerian public and policy imagination, and numbers alone fail to capture the severity and extent of their perpetual degradation.
What explains this attitude towards people with disabilities in Nigeria? This paragraph from the same Agora policy sums up the problem: “In many cultures and religions, disability is seen as a curse or a punishment for bad behaviour. This explains why in many communities, spiritual solutions are sought and people with disabilities are isolated and sometimes hidden from their families as a ‘shame’. Through socialization, many people with disabilities learn to self-stigmatize and isolate themselves for fear of negative reactions and rejection by members of the community. Children with disabilities are criticized for their body shape by their peers, girls and women with disabilities are sexually assaulted and their complaints are often dismissed by law enforcement agencies.” The stigmatizing spectacle of some people with disabilities using their disability for emotional blackmail in the crowded streets of urban centres is one result of this dehumanization.
Disabled people, especially minors, are at risk of being haunted by ghosts even if they have not suffered physical or mental abuse. In some communities, “abnormal” parts of the body are believed to have unspecified spiritual benefits. Reports of the ritual killing of hunchbacks are frequent in Nigeria and other parts of the African continent.
The Nigerian Disability Discrimination (Prohibition) Act, signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 (and adopted by only 19 states of the Nigerian Federation so far), marks a significant milestone on the road to awareness and inclusion of persons with disabilities. Needless to say, this law will be meaningless if it is not complemented and strengthened by a change in society-wide attitude whereby persons with disabilities are treated not with pity, but with the same dignity and inherent worth accorded to all human beings regardless of their physical condition.