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From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The Federal Government has restated its commitment to lead in the move to end statelessness globally before 2024.
This commitment was made during the launch of the National Action Plan (NAP) and inauguration of the High-level Steering Committee ( HLSC),in Abuja, yesterday by the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Socal Development.
The Minister of Interior,Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola stressed that resolving the issue of statelessness in the country would go a long way in the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG, in the context of Nigeria’s Development Agenda.
Aregbesola added that investing on peaceful and secured environment was a positive panacea for Nigeria to flourish with her natural and human endowments.
“We often take our nationality for granted, especially if we were born within a country where our race and ethnic nationalities were significantly represented while saying that not every human was so fortunate as according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more than 10 million stateless persons across the globe.
“Stateless persons usually have no legal protection and right to vote. They often lack access to education, employment, healthcare, registration of birth, marriage or death, and property rights. They are vulnerable to exploitations and human trafficking.
“The endorsement of protocols in the ECOWAS Plan of Action on eradication and reduction of statelessness by 2024 prompted Nigeria to develop and domesticate her own National Action Plan (NAP) to put an end to statelessness in Nigeria.
“As you are aware, the Plan was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on 25th November 2020. It prioritized five key areas for implementation, these are:Research, advocacy and sensitization; Preventing childhood statelessness, he said.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Socal Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq
in her remarks revealed that laws would be made to remove gender discrimination and ensure that no child is born into statelessness.
