September 28, (THEWILL) – The Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Malam Aliyu Ahmed, recently marked three years in office.
Amid the fanfare, he said that there are more than 6.7 million displaced persons in the country. Many of them are Nigerians, with a sprinkling of other people from neighbouring countries.
He also said the commission is making efforts towards having authentic and reliable data on migrants and displaced persons in the country. To this end, the Commission has engaged a consultant.
So, effectively, the 6.7 million figure is an estimate. For a country that is officially not at war, this number is not only high but outrageous.
When the Commission was created in 1989, its mandate was strictly for refugees. At a time when the West African region was embroiled in conflict, particularly in Liberia, where a civil war had erupted following reactions to the antics of a military regime that toppled one of the oldest civil governments there and much later in Sierra Leone with a more or less political conflict, the Commission was saddled with the duty of handling the influx of displaced persons fleeing conflict zones. In 2002, following inter-ethnic conflicts in the country, its mandate was expanded to include Internally Displaced Persons and recently, the aspect dealing with migrants was added in 2009.
Interestingly, the Commission said it has returned no fewer than 50,000 refugees into the country in the past three years. For the immigrants the Commission has participated in resettling, a notable case is the 1,400 Nigerians who were repatriated from xenophobic South Africa and the Commission has helped to resettle them in their communities.
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For the IDPs scattered across many conflict-prone states, particularly in the areas undergoing severe terror-related attacks, the Commission also restated its commitment to managing the more than 6.7 million displaced persons in the country.
To give them a sense of belonging and a chance to engage in productive activities, the Commission has been providing education for the displaced children and farming for the adults within the camps and the host communities. This is commendable. It was, however, alarming to learn from Aliyu that the government has stopped providing what he described as envelopes to Persons of Concern.
Yes, this method may create a sense of entitlement in the long run, but the reports coming from many of the camps regarding severe shortages in many areas of their lives should make it mandatory for the government, through its agencies, to continue providing finance, facilities and amenities on a sustained basis. These IDPs are faced with a peculiar situation, and they must be assisted on a structured and continued basis until they either voluntarily leave the camps or are integrated with their host communities. Indeed, a concrete step is to do away with their ramshackle accommodation and provide them with affordable, even fabricated, homes that would assist them in finding solace in their host communities. The makeshift camps make them nostalgic about their missed homes and rob many of a sense of belonging that they need to feel included.
