Debola Daniel, the physically challenged son of a former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel has weighed in on the just concluded Lagos concert that Featured singer, Burna Boy.
The international singing sensation was to headline the Lagos Loves Damini show on New Year’s Day where the cheapest ticket sold for N30,000.
Reports say that the concert was billed to start by 8:00pm but Burna only mounted stage at 3:00am.
However, the singer later apologized to his fans saying that technical issues caused the delayed kickoff.
Weighing in on the incident, Daniel insisted that the concert was a disaster considering that the needs of physically challenged people were not taken into consideration.
In a series of Tweet, the London based banker regretted how people living with disabilities are treated in social gatherings in Nigeria.
He stated that despite being a rich and powerful Nigerian who is respected, he still suffers marginalization when in the country.
Debola stated that hospitals, residential buildings, banks and others do not create a means for disabled individuals to easily gain entry and often have to be helped by others.
He wondered how disabled Nigerians who are not as privileged as he is navigate their day to day activities.
The ex-Governor’s son expressed hope for a better Nigeria where he and his kind would no longer be viewed as the stereotypical cripple poisoned by Patience Ozokwor in a Nollywood movie.
According to him, “From an accessible perspective, that concert was a disaster.
“Maybe later I will do a thread about how Nigerian events constantly exclude people who look like me.
“It’s quite humbling to be always ‘othered’ by an industry/country I love so much.
“Put him there” “park am for there” “can he talk” “sign this for him”. It’s endless and incessant. Your voice is constantly being stripped away. Your presence eroded. You know the ironic thing?
“I’m a rich, powerful Nigerian. Someone that my mere surname commands respect. I am the privileged few. I am the disabled Nigerian that they should respect. The one they recognise. The one they must treat well.
“If my voice and my very being can be marginalised, what then of the voice of the average disabled Nigerian out there? What then of the Nigerian who doesn’t have the power to walk into a location with an army of armed escorts?
“I have been to hospitals that have flights of stairs to get into. I have been to banks without ways to get in. Residential buildings are inaccessible. Pavements cannot be wheeled upon independently. As a fiercely independent person, I can’t live a life in Nigeria without help.
“This lack of inclusion, the lack of access and the systemic exclusion from society has been simmering inside me for years. It’s strange that what has tipped me over the edge was reading about the events that occurred at that concert last night.
“I saw clips and read tweets from the safety of my couch and was horrified at how much planning I would have had to undertake to attend that concert yet still end up unprepared for that.
“How would I have gotten in? How would I have gotten out? Where could I go pee? If it’s true that they were shooting tear gas and there was a stampede, what would I have done?
“Then I realised that I’m going to the same artiste’s concert in London in a few months and I have zero of those worries. I am privileged. I can just attend in London.
“But don’t I owe it to the average disabled Nigerian to say that with the global visibility Afrobeats is getting, maybe, just maybe someone will remember that disabled Nigerians exist?
“That we have a right to be included in the planning and execution of the vision of Nigeria. Not just at an accessible level but at all levels?
“To see myself being included in planning and infrastructure. To see myself positively in Nigerian stories not just as the cripple that Patience Ozokwor poisoned on Nollywood. I am more that a stereotype. I am human. And it’ll be nice if you saw that too.
“END”