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In her recent appearance on Electoral Reform Half Hour on NTA News 24, Grace Jerry, founder of the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA) and an advocate for disability rights, offered a straightforward critique of the current electoral processes affecting persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Nigeria. She focused on barriers to full participation, identifying key areas for improvement that could make elections more inclusive and accessible.

Grace emphasized that while Nigeria has “plenty of policies and so many laws” addressing disability rights, enforcement remains inconsistent. She noted, “INEC has a very beautiful PWD framework in place,  but you would still notice the gaps in terms of enforcement.” She argued that although sections of the Electoral Act, 2022, specifically include mandates for disability inclusivity, election day practices don’t always reflect these provisions.

One of the core issues Jerry highlighted was the lack of accurate data on PWDs, which impacts resource allocation and accessibility efforts. Despite efforts to gather disaggregated data during the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, “the data that INEC generated still does not speak true to the reality of the number of registered voters within our voting age.” According to her, without accurate data, INEC struggles to deploy the necessary assistive materials and to set up accessible polling unit layouts that can significantly improve the voting experience for PWDs.

Grace also proposed that INEC use off-cycle elections to test accessibility reforms, particularly by improving training for ad hoc staff. She recommended that INEC involve the disability community in training processes, underscoring the importance of “nothing about us without us.” She added that collaboration with organizations like IFA could improve the training of all staff involved in the electoral process, particularly those directly supporting PWDs at polling stations.

As an example of an impactful reform, She suggested consolidating Nigeria’s elections into a single day, citing her experience as an international observer in Kenya. “When I look at that, I’m wondering why can’t we deploy such methodology in Nigeria, especially for the disability community?” she asked. Grace explained that a single election day would reduce the burden of multiple trips to polling units, which can be particularly challenging for PWDs. “If you bring everything together in one day,  you’ve been able to solve it,” she stated, emphasizing the importance of minimizing logistical challenges.

In addition to structural changes, Grace called for continuous, accessible civic education for PWDs. She described IFA’s efforts to inform voters through innovative outreach methods like town criers, who travel from village to village to share voting information. However, she noted that sustaining such efforts requires funding, and advocated for stronger partnerships to extend these initiatives. “You need funds to be able to sustain those town criers,” she pointed out, stressing the need for civic education efforts to reach young people with disabilities as they approach voting age.

Concluding the program, Jerry urged INEC, the media, and other key stakeholders to work closely with disability organizations. “We need that constant collaboration with every key electoral stakeholder, all hands on deck to work with the community of persons with disabilities. Nothing about us without us,” she said, reinforcing her call for inclusive practices that ensure accessible and fair electoral participation for everyone.