From Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara has criticised the Northern Establishment for not showing any concern over the plights of Internally Displaced Persons(IDPS), particularly women, saying that they love political gatherings and prefer to interface with Presidential candidates.
Dogara who stated this in a speech at the 7th Henna Ball Awards Night organized by Tozali Magazine with theme “The IDP Question as a stain on Nigeria’s Conscience, held at at the ICC, Abuja weekend stated that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are victims of violence fleeing from their homes or communities but have not crossed an international border for safety, adding that they are forced from their homes inside their own country and are in need of protection, shelter, food, non-food items such as blankets and camp coordination/camp management.
“According to the UNCHR, Boko Haram and other non-state armed groups as well as clashes between herders and farmers have pushed some 3 million Nigerians as of November 2021 out of their homes, especially in parts of North-East Nigeria and the country’s Middle Belt, but increasingly also in North-West Nigeria. The protracted crises in this region has resulted into conflict-induced food insecurity and severe malnutrition. This has not only raised some pertinent questions but has become a stain on Nigeria’s conscience”
“If you look at the condition of Nigeria, especially the Northeast and you don’t feel the pains, you are the one that is sick. No thanks to the activities of these dishevelled terrorists or bandits. The IDP question is more of a Northern phenomenon, although there are IDP camps scattered all over the country as a result of the parlous security situation in the Nation”
“The night has fallen on Nigeria, especially the North. It’s a night so tepid for most of our people so much so that they crave cruel kindness – just something that has meaning even if its meaningless. Ever wondered what it means to be on a bilious race with no finish line or what it means when life becomes worse than death? To escape from this night that only stagnates for most of our people is like traveling on a highway that is well paved with spikes of steel or attempting to sail on a clay boat”
“We all know that the North bears nearly 90% of the insecurity brunt of the country. If estimates are anything to go by, not less than 50,000 northerners have been killed while over 3 million have been displaced in the Northeast alone. No one has the record of Northern lives lost to rural banditry, the farmer-herder clashes and ethno-religious conflicts. The number grows exponentially when we add to this, death occasioned by urban violence unleashed by an increasing army of mostly jobless youths suffering from substance use disorder”
“Added to the above is the threat posed by school dropouts and out of School children. According to global data on out-of-school children, Nigeria has now 20 million out of school children. The data further shows that 1 in every 5 out-of-school children is in Northern Nigeria and 60 percent of this number are found in the North”
“Findings show that the major problems confronting displaced Nigerians are lack of food, problem of shelter, poor health care, poor access to education, and lack of access to clean water supply. Research after research have proven that displaced persons suffer significantly higher rates of mortality than the general population. As if that is not enough, there have been public outcry regarding rampant cases of physical violence, sexual assault and abduction unleashed on IDPs across all the camps in Nigeria”
“The stories are so deprecating to a point that we have turned ourselves into a world wide object of ridicule. Of all the heart rending stories, it is the plight of women IDPs that bother me the most. It is said that, “sex crimes are a serious problem because they violate personal freedoms, traumatise the victim, and often lead to undesired pregnancy, unsafe abortions and complications tied to early childbearing age or even death”.
“In the midst of all these crises, what have we done as individuals and what has the Northern establishment done? I do not make any excuse, I am part of the establishment. We have done nothing to our collective shame! Imagine the Northern establishment had organized a submit where select IDPs from all the camps are invited to share their plight and thereafter establish a trust fund for IDPs in which every Northerner is required to pay in his/her month’s salary within a quarter while those who can give more give as God lays it in their hearts. No doubt, if that had happened, we would have set aside enough funds to cater for the needs of all IDPs regardless of what the Government chooses to do”
“I tell you a story. When I was in office as speaker, I led efforts to create the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to help pull together resources for the recovery, reconstruction and development of the North East because then the North West and North Central had not become theaters of conflict. The Initiative won support of all NASS members because of the pathetic situations and with great difficulty we were able to pull it across the finish line. Don’t ask me what has become of the NEDC. I am getting discomforting signals but I don’t have any concrete evidence so it will be most distressing for me to make a value judgement on the bases of those signals.
“Under our leadership also, we managed to pull all North East Members into a caucus that met fortnightly. I lead select members on a visit to all the major IDP camps across all the Zones with the exception of Camps in Maiduguri on account of scheduling issues with the then Governor. We took along with us tons of relief materials which we donated to the IPDs and heard their stories first hand. At the Wasa Camp here in Abuja we sank boreholes for them and built a dispensary and donated it to FCT administration to run in order to meet the most immediate health needs of the IDPs. We raised money to help address the plight of IDPs and by the time I left office, our account had a balance of over N50 million” he said.