Nigeria’s growing IDP population – Thisday

The National Emergency Management Agency should address the challenges of the displaced victims

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a Norway-based non-governmental humanitarian organisation on internal displacement around the world has reported that more than 1.5 million Nigerians have been displaced as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency just as no fewer than 150,000 have taken refuge in neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon. 'International attention has tended to focus on Boko Haram's brutality, but inter-communal conflicts, flooding, desertification and forced evictions have also caused significant internal displacement. With presidential and parliamentary elections due in February 2015, there are fears of recurrence of the violence and displacement that accompanied the 2011 polls, particularly in the north of the country,' said the IDMC in its latest report.

However, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has put the total number of internally displaced people in the country at 981, 416. Throwing darts at the IDMC, the NEMA Director General, Mr. Mohammed Sani-Sidi said: 'IDMC went and released the number of displaced persons in the country and we say that is fraud and we are going to go through the due process to challenge that figure because they put together the number of IDPs over the years. How can you do that just to be able to raise fund?  It is very fraudulent and we are going to challenge it.'

We consider it unnecessary that Sani-Sidi, who himself confirmed that no fewer than 0.98million Nigerians have been affected by the insurgency in the North-eastern states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno with additional 120,077 students left in the lurch, would engage in needless diatribes with an organisation that only highlighted the challenge facing the country. The vast majority of the internally displaced, according to the IDMC, are women and children, who face a range of threats to their physical safety and restrictions on their freedom of movement. 'Many are traumatised by the violence that prompted them to flee and are afraid to return. Those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by conflict and flooding have nowhere to go back to. Most internally displaced families live and share resources with host communities.'

While we concede that NEMA's efforts are quite commendable, the facts on the ground remain, as the IDCM has pointed out, that there are obvious gaps in addressing the needs of the IDPs, not only by the governments, at all levels, but also by the civil society. According to the IDCM, people who live in or near camps receive assistance that is most often not enough to meet basic needs. 'They also tend to live in cramped and unhygienic conditions. The most vulnerable IDPs - the young, older people and those with disabilities - are most at risk. There is a lack of strategy guiding humanitarian assistance and only limited discussion of durable solutions at both the national and local level.'

We agree with the IDMC that the full impact of displacement in Nigeria is unclear, because figures are often only available after larger-scale crises. 'Estimates suggest that violence and disasters caused by natural hazards have forced a staggering number of people to flee their homes, but information is anecdotal and primarily about the minority of IDPs who live in camps. Data collection is inconsistent and unreliable, leading to an alarming lack of understanding of displacement dynamics, and fragmented and inadequate responses' the IDMC stated.

We believe, like the IDMC has stated, that what is important is how to address the causes of displacement, and not distracting quibbles over actual numbers. The failure to define roles and responsibilities, according to the organisation, continues to hamper the humanitarian and development response, a holistic approach towards durable solutions and efforts to prevent and prepare for future displacement. Rather than attack the IDMC, it would be more productive if the NEMA can address some of the challenges highlighted in their report.