Follow Us on Google
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Government, through the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), has promised to take care of 6.7 million IDPS in the country.
NCFRMI’s federal commissioner, Aliyu Tijani, during his three-year celebration in office in Abuja, disclosed that the Commission had repatriated 50,000 refugees into the country, across Africa and beyond.
He said: “In the last three years, we have been able to return about 50,000 Nigerian refugees back into the country.
“Within the last three years, we were able to take care of displaced individuals who are living in camps and also those that are living within the host communities.
“We shall continue to manage about 6.7 million displaced individuals in this country. We are also managing the affairs of the refugees within and outside the country.
“We have refugees from other nations living in Nigeria. And of course, we have our own Nigerians who are living in other countries like Cameroon, Republic of Niger, Chad, Liberia and many others.
“Just recently, we received 1,400 Nigerians from the Republic of South Africa and we have been receiving people like that across the 36 states of the federation. These are some of the most peculiar tasks on the shoulders of the NCFRMI.
“But, with the support we are receiving from President Bola Tinubu, we have been able to manage and then move on with our mandate.”
Tijani also revealed that in three years, NCFRMI had taken care of the host communities accommodating the displaced persons.
According to him, NCFRMI would soon have an authentic and reliable data of migrants and displaced persons in the country.
He said a consultant had been engaged, adding that soon, the commission would have a robust data management system for migrants and indigenous displaced persons.
He noted that most of the attention had been to the IDPs and the refugees, saying, “This is because you cannot attend to only the displaced individuals; you must equally consider those who are receiving these IDPs in their communities.
“Recently, Nigerian migrants were repatriated back into the country. We have been providing training for refugees, migrants and displaced individuals as a durable solution.
“This is against providing envelopes to Persons of Concern. The Federal Government cannot continue to fend for this 6.7 million displaced Nigerians.
“We are into pure durable solutions now. And in doing that, we have engaged our IDPs into farming activities so that they can produce and fend for themselves.
“Also, through the training, they should be able to take care of themselves and fend for themselves.
“We have also been providing them with education because once we allow those children to live in camps without being educated, we are more or less rearing criminals in our societies.
“The commission has taken it upon itself to provide education for the displaced children who are living within the camps,” Ahmed said.
The former Nasarawa State Commissioner charged civil servants to promote and project the commission positively instead of selling it out to the public for pecuniary gains.
