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SURMOUNTING THE HURDLES OF DISABILITY (1)- CASE STUDY OF SENATOR HAYATU GWARZO

Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo is a Nigeria politician from the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who has been a member of the national senate since 1999. He was born in 14 April 1960. He has a National Diploma (Statistics) and is a banker by occupation. He was elected as senator in the 4th Senate (1999–2003) on May 29th 1999, and into 5th Senate (2003–2007) of the National Assembly. He represented the Kano North Senatorial District.

In April 2007 he ran again but was defeated by Aminu Sule Garo of the then All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP). However, in December of that year, few months  after Garo's emergency as the Senator of Kano North senatorial district, his election was annulled on the grounds of fake academic credentials and Hayatu came back to the Senate and took his place. Senator Gwarzo was made a member of senate committees on Police Affairs, Millennium Development Goals and Appropriation.

Gwarzo again ran for reelection as Senator for Kano North on the PDP platform in April 2011, and was again elected, winning 204, 905 votes. He became the senate Chief Whip at the 7th Senate. He also contested in the just concluded 2015 election but lost. He and Senator Farouk Lawan and very few others are among the longest serving senators at National Assembly, having been elected and reelected into the hallowed chamber of National Assembly since 1999.

 

DISABILITY:

One thing anyone who has not meet Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo in person do not know is that the senator is living with disability. Senator Gwarzo is confined to wheelchair as a result of accident he had many years ago (which some said occurred long before he started his journey into the hallowed chamber). The accident affected his spinal cords, thus confining him to wheelchair.

 From my analysis as a special educator cum rights advocate, Senator Gwarzo's amazing feat was not unconnected with his inability to allow his disability to define and dictate for him. From all indication, the senator does not in any way see himself as a person with disability. He belongs to the class that spells and pronounces DISABILITY as THISABILITY or THESEABILITIES (in case of plural form). From my research on the senator during my one year National Youth Service Corps at the upper house of National Assembly, I discovered that the senator do not tolerate weakness. He does not tolerate anything that makes him weak or anything that tries to stress out his disability as a disadvantage on him. That to me is one of the contributory factors to his success. Another major contributory factor is the consistent support of his people, and the belief they have on his capacity to deliver, irrespective of his disability. After all it is his spinal cords that were affected, not his brain.

This therefore is a pointer to the fact that what persons with disabilities deserve from the society in other to bring out their best includes acceptance, love, mainstreaming and unwavering support.

Disability is not death sentence. It is a test aimed at enabling you come out redefined and refined as gold from the furnace fire. It sky-rocket your worth and make you priceless. It is no longer DISABILITY if you approach it with the expected attitude. It becomes THIS-ABILITY!

NB: I the author and founder of Voice of Disability Initiative (VDI) is hearing-impaired. As a deaf, I represent THIS-ABILITY, not DISABILITY! 

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It is all about A-B-I-L-I-T-Y...

 

 

 

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