Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, has raised concern over the increase in the number of IDPs and deaths in violent conflicts in northern Nigeria.
According to Dogara, over three million people have been displaced by banditry, ethnic and religious conflicts, farmers’ and herders’ disputes, and the Boko Haram insurgency, with an estimated 50,000 people have died in the Myhe region.
He gave a paper titled The IDP Question as a Stain on our Conscience at the 7th Henna Balls Awards Night, which was held on Saturday in Abuja and hosted by Torzali Magazine.
According to him, the prolonged crises in the area have led to chronic malnutrition and food insecurity brought on by fighting.
The former Speaker stated that the development has put a strain on Nigeria’s conscience in addition to raising important issues.
“You are the one who is ill if you look at Nigeria, especially the Northeast, and don’t feel the aches.
No thanks to these unkempt terrorists or bandits’ antics,” he said.
He asserts that the majority of the country’s instability is concentrated in the North, leading to the most population displacements.
According to estimates, nearly three million people have been evacuated in the Northeast alone, and at least 50,000 northerners have died.
“No one has the statistics on the number of Northerners killed in farmer-herder disputes, rural banditry, or ethnoreligious violence.
“When we include urban violent deaths caused by an expanding army of primarily unemployed youngsters with substance use disorders, the number increases dramatically.”
More concerning, he added, is that the displaced people experience considerably higher death rates than the regular population and lack access to clean water, food, housing, healthcare, and education.
As if that were not enough, he added, there had been widespread reports of physical abuse, sexual assault, and kidnapping against IDPs in all of Nigeria’s camps.
The reports are so humiliating to the point that we have become a laughingstock throughout the world.
The fate of women IDPs bothers me the most out of all the heartbreaking stories.
It is argued that “sex crimes are a severe concern since they violate individual liberties, traumatize the victim, and frequently result in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, difficulties related to early reproductive age, or even fatalities.
Most IDPs are compelled to take drastic measures to live.
You can only imagine the pressure on such women to do everything within their means to earn additional income to support their families given that women outnumber men significantly and that nearly all of them are either the de facto or de jure heads of their households after losing their husbands and breadwinners to the crises that drove them to the camps.
This is a significant contributing factor in the situations of increasing exposure of women and girls to sexual assault in the Camps.
Dogara noted that he introduced a measure that resulted in the creation of the North East Development Commission because of the necessity to address the problem of internally displaced people in the northeast subregion (NEDC).
He thought the Commission should be able to assist in bringing together resources for the rehabilitation, rebuilding, and development of the North East given the correct political will.
Due to the deplorable circumstances, “The Initiative earned the support of all NASS members, and with great effort, we were able to bring it through the finish line,” he stated.
“Don’t enquire about the NEDC’s fate with me.
It would be quite disturbing for me to form a value judgment based on the unsettling signals I am receiving since I lack any hard proof.
“Under our leadership, too, we were able to bring all the North East Members together in a caucus that convened twice a month. Except for the Camps in Maiduguri due to schedule conflicts with the former Governor, I led a group of chosen members on a tour of all the main IDP camps throughout all Zones. We brought a ton of supplies for assistance, which we donated to the IPDs after personally hearing about their accounts. To address the IDPs’ most pressing medical requirements, we dug boreholes for them in the Wasa Camp in Abuja and constructed a dispensary, which we presented to the FCT administration for operation. By the time I left office, our account had a balance of over N50 million, thanks to the funds we raised to assist alleviate the situation of IDPs.
