The House of Representatives on Monday
decried the Federal Government’s current approach to addressing the
plight of Internally Displaced Persons in the North-East, saying the
government’s support services were not reaching the displaced persons.
It specifically noted the lack of
“concurrent plans” to tackle the influx of IDPs into camps in the
region, a development that was triggered off by intensified military
campaign against the Boko Haram insurgents.
It stated that the development, coupled
with the lack of transparency in the procurement of food supplies by the
Presidential Initiative on North-East, had led to deteriorating
humanitarian situation in the zone.
The House’s position was contained in a
document released in Abuja by its Committee on IDPs, Refugees &
Federal Government Initiatives on North-East Region, which reviewed the
situation in the North-East.
It was signed by the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Sani Zoro.
The House also noted that some agencies,
saddled with the duty of responding to the plight of the IDPs, did not
have the capacity to meet the requirements necessary for such services.
The document partly read, “For
inexplicable reasons, too, the Federal Government has failed to embrace
best global policy practices that would have helped significantly in
attracting the buy-in and commitment of genuine donor organisations and
members of the humanitarian cluster.
“Agencies charged with camp management
have only proved their incompetence over the years while transparency in
procurement procedures of the Presidential Initiative on North-East and
the Victims Support Fund remain a ruse as they are observed in the
breach.
“The situation has been aggravated
further by the refusal of the Federal Government to adopt and
operationalise the well-articulated national policy on internally
displaced persons, developed and updated over the years.
“The policy’s objective, among others,
is to facilitate effective and efficient coordination of humanitarian
response among government agencies, local and international
non-governmental organisations as well as relevant organs of the United
Nations. “
“Regrettably, these and other failures
have, over the years, multiplied and led to the current ‘free-for-all’
situation, in which large scale pillaging of food and non-food relief
items, high infant mortality rates, gender-based violence, high birth
rates in camps and forests, squalor, malnourishment, and humanitarian
profiteering by unconscionable people and groups, are the prevailing
narrative from the North-East region,” the committee stated.
To urgently salvage the situation, the
House called for the appointment of a “responsible, conversant and
committed Commissioner and Chief Executive for the National Commission
for Refugees.”
It said the officer should immediately
re-position the commission to deliver on “all mandates specified in the
Geneva Convention and the Additional Protocol governing the treatment of
refugees and internally displaced persons, other regional treaties and
agreements to which Nigeria is a signatory.”
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