Anthony Iwuoma
The Senate, on Wednesday, set in motion steps to make life more tolerable for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country.
Following the submission of the senator, representing Imo North, Sir Frank IIbezim, the Senate moved to ensure that the IDPs are not only protected but also rehabilitated and reintegrated into the society.
The Senate by a Bill on the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons In Africa (Domestication And Enforcement) Bill, 2021), noted that domesticating the Kampala Convention will pave way for a paradigm shift from relief and humanitarian assistance to IDPs which appears to be the focus of most IDP intervention in Nigeria, to other germane issues pertaining to IDPs nationwide.”
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Ibezim, sponsor of the bill, had argued that “the latter aspects of IDP management are not adequately addressed under existing legal and institutional framework as a result of the overlap of statutory responsibilities or poor delineation of mandates.
Consequently, he reasoned, several IDPs are abandoned to their fate after the initial relief phase or even left without assistance at all.
The senator noted that domesticating the provisions of the Kampala Convention signed by the Federal Government in October 2009, and ratified in April 2012, will comply with “the requirements of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, which requires that treaties signed between Nigeria and other countries or international bodies should first be domesticated by an Act of the National Assembly with further ratification by a majority of the Houses of Assembly in the federation.”
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He called for the provision of education opportunities for the IDPs, “as an empowerment right, education is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially marginalised adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and obtain the means to participate fully in their communities. We are also aware that people uprooted from their homes are even more vulnerable if they cannot read and write.”
The senator also charged government to create a new framework to adequately monitor the implementation of the Kampala Convention and future policies on IDPs in the country.
According to him: intervention agencies like the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, should continue to “provide humanitarian assistance to natural/man-made disasters as provided in the enabling Act, the National Commission for Refugees (NCR) will be concentrating on the refugee crisis.”
