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• says 5,500 students have indicated interest to return
• says over 3m Nigerians live in Sudan – FG
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government has disclosed that barring any last-minute changes, the first set of Nigerian evacuees from Sudan are expected to arrive in Nigeria on Friday.
This is even as it disclosed that over three million Nigerians are resident in Sudan, making them the highest number of the country’s diaspora, doing their legitimate business and residing there peacefully.
It also clarified that if those that have indicated interested to be evacuated, 5,500 of them are students.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in an update at the 70th ministerial briefing, organized by the presidential communication team, made the disclosure, said those millions of Nigerians do not want to be refugees anywhere hence are eager for the war to come to an end quickly.
She said: “A lot of them (Nigerians) have settled there doing their businesses and there are a lot of students there. At this point in time, we are dealing with 5,500 students, now that is not the population some people are mixing it up. That is the number of students studying there. We have almost 3 million Nigerians who are in Sudan and have made it their home for years. So that is the current update.”
Dabiri-Erewa announced that 13 buses out of the 40 hired, have departed from two universities in Khartoum, carrying Nigerian students to the Aswan border in Egypt, where they will be airlifted to Nigeria.
However, she highlighted the challenge of more Nigerians expressing interest in returning home than previously indicated.
The evacuation process is part of the government’s effort to repatriate Nigerian citizens stranded in the war torn country.
On allegations of segregation and discrimantion in the evacuation process, she explained that children and women were given priority as they were profiled for administrative purposes.
Dabiri-Erewa said as the evacuees return to Nigeria, they will be given some stipends to help them settle down before joining their families.
“NEMA will decide what would be given to the returnees because the funding is with the Ministry of Humanitarian affairs and Disaster Management. Usually is just a little amount. The last one, we gave them we evacuated people, we gave them $100. So, it depends on the budget they have.
“But we in NIDCOM give them recharge cards, SIM cards and sometimes phones. Usually they get $100 just to hold and these are students coming back to their families. They are not refugees, they have homes,” she stressed.
She also said challenges associated with the evacuation process are already being addressed as she suggested that Rapid response Squads be established by NEMA in all parts of the country and in the diaspora, to help address unforeseen circumstances.
“I think that moving on, it is very important for NEMA to have Rapid Response Squads with military formations in all parts of Nigeria and then in the diaspora with military attaches. There really has to be those teams set in place.. It shouldn’t be when the crisis happens we start running around,” the NIDCOM Chairman advised.
The NIDCOM boss said a boeing 777 from Airpeace will depart Lagos by evening of Thursday and will transport the first batch home on Friday.
She assured all Nigerians that all those who registered to be evacuated home will all be facilitated irrespective of status , gender and state.
She allayed the fears of being attacked by the warlords, saying the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Geoffrey Onyeama already secured the understanding of the two warlords before the transportation of Nigerians by road.
Speaking on what should be done going forward, she said, it is now time for Nigeria to focus more on Nigerians in Sudan and other parts of Africa because there are many of them residing in other African countries.
“When we were talking about Diaspora voting, some people were saying when we do that, it may not augur well. But we said no, we need to go to places like Sudan where we have millions of Nigerians who migrated there years ago and they have relationships and businesses there.
“The data is being worked on but I want to tell you categorically that by the time we finish the research we are doing, perhaps Sudan would be one of the largest areas where we have the largest concentration of Nigerians in diaspora. Everytime we focus on Europe, America and all that, it is time to focus on Africa and Africans in the Diaspora,” she said.
