John Ameh, Abuja
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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