Madam Veronica Mba, a visually impaired Assembly Member for the Adoborobisi Electoral Area in the Bongo District, has appealed to disabled persons to contest in elections.
She said this at a capacity building workshop organized by Grass Roots Africa, a non-governmental organisation.
“It is high time disabled persons get actively involved in politics. It is only when this is done that we can fight to address issues affecting us. Disability does not mean inability,” Mad Mba
said.
Citing herself as an example, she said she retained her seat twice despite her visual impairment.
She said she was able to recapture the seat through capacity building workshops organized by Grass Roots Africa prior to the District Assembly Election and the financial support received from the
NGO.
Mad Mba said there were potentials that could be derived from people with disabilities for national development if they were given the opportunity and appealed to the government and other stakeholders to support people with disabilities when it comes to elections.
Madam Mba advised her colleagues to stop undermining themselves in society and work hard to improve upon their lot, stressing that it was
only through this that they could be respected.
She said the major challenge facing her constituency was water and electricity and said she would lobby hard to ensure that people in her
constituency get these basic needs.
Mad Mba said most of the women who could not win the District Assembly election attributed their failure to the partisan nature of the District Assembly Election.