As
part of the activities to mark the 2016 World Humanitarian Day, the
Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, sent a technical team to
Maiduguri, Borno State, to conduct
interviews with domestic and international stakeholders working in the
IDP camps in the greater Maiduguri area. The purpose of the visit was to
collect information about the emergency relief, recovery and
rehabilitation efforts in Borno State.
Saraki's
team were directed to review the coordination between the government of
Nigeria and NGO/INGOS, the capacity of service delivery programs and
receive feedback from the IDP's
themselves.
At
the camps, the team interacted with groups of committed officials and
volunteers of NEMA and SEMA, who stated that the government was doing
all that it possibly could to aid
and secure the IDPs. However, the complexity and scale of the
emergency is far beyond the government's capacity and that Nigeria
simply cannot do it by themselves.
Speaking
on the purpose of the visit, the Senate President stated that it was
important to send a team to assess the humanitarian situation on ground
in the North East, following
reports from aid agencies that greater international attention and a
more robust response is needed to alleviate the plight of the over 9
million Nigerians who are in need of relief in the Lake Chad Basin area.
“We
cannot afford to take for granted the sacrifice and support of both our
domestic and international partners in the North East,” Saraki stated,
“This is why we must all sit down
as quickly as possible to plan the transition from crisis, to relief
and beyond. We must expedite the processes that are needed to bring
about the recovery and rehabilitation of the entire region”
The
Senate President’s delegation also represented Saraki at the North East
Humanitarian Summit, hosted by UN OCHA and the Network of Civil Society
Organisations, Borno State (NECSOB),
where 150 IDP Ambassadors - 25 people chosen from 6 different camps -
were inaugurated as representatives of the IDPs in Borno State. The
responsibility of the IDP Ambassadors is to relay the concerns about
protection, community input and empowerment of IDPs
directly to government and international partners.
Several IDPs who spoke at the North East Humanitarian Summit raised awareness about nutrition and food aid delivery issues.
In
a related development, the Senate President has called for an
International Summit on the North East - similar to the one held in
London for Syria which raised about $10 million.
He also mentioned that at the resumption of the Senate in September,
there would be a motion to create a Senate Ad-Hoc Committee to conduct
a Public Hearing on the humanitarian response in the North East. This
public hearing would be aimed at reviewing the
recommendations of domestic and international partners in order to
develop a sustainable framework for Nigeria’s emergency and humanitarian
crisis management for the North East and future complex emergencies.
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