Why Nigeria is under siege –Akume

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, George Akume, has attributed inadequate emergency preparedness, planning, response and policy intervention as reasons the country appears to be under the grip of bandits.

Akume, a former Governor of Benue State, stated this, yesterday, in Abuja at a book launch titled ‘A planner’s perspective on disaster and conflict: Issues of forced displacement of persons, management in Nigeria’, authored by Bassey Ita Etim-Ikang.

“The challenges facing Nigeria includes but not limited to inadequate emergency preparedness and response, the gap between relief materials management and durable development projects, and ad-hoc planning and policy intervention. There is also lack of institutional and legal framework for the management of internally displaced population in Nigeria, insufficient or absence of inter-agency collaboration which mostly results in agencies working at cross purposes with duplicative activities.

The lack of a defined strategy and appropriate national framework of cooperation among relevant agencies and institutions to design sustainable action plan for medium-long terms projects have been a huge deficit for policy makers. Therefore, all efforts to minimise the vicious cycle of violent conflicts and crisis arising from abject poverty and deprivation including lack of inclusive management structure based on bottom-top approach to grassroots participation that recognises peace and confidence building mechanism have just been put in place by the ministry,” he said.