By Paul Effiong, Abuja
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu has assured the United Nations that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is taking deliberate and effective steps to address the plight of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Nigeria.
This was contained in a statement in Abuja, signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu.
According to the statement, the assurance was made during a high-level United Nations Special Online event held yesterday to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons.
Kalu also highlighted government’s concerted efforts to domesticate the Kampala Convention, a pivotal regional treaty designed to protect and assist IDPs.
He emphasised that the Tinubu administration had proactively activated key components of the treaty to significantly enhance the living conditions of IDPs.
Kalu informed the UN that Nigeria’s National Assembly is diligently finalising legislation to provide legal backing to the treaty.
He assured that upon securing presidential assent, states of the federation would also adopt the legislation, ensuring a unified approach to addressing IDP issues nationwide.
“I am humbled to make my contributions about legislative activities and perspectives that we have on this particular issue, particularly in regards to concrete steps taken by my country to address the plight of Internally Displaced Persons. Our country believes so much in these principles.
“The ones that are on the front burner for us as we activate issues around IDPs. The principle one, which is protection from arbitrary displacement. Three, which is protection during this displacement, ten, which is the right to know the fate of whereabouts of relatives and twenty eight, which is the right to be returned or resettled. These are the ones on the front burner. We also believe in other ones, these principles form the bedrock of the Kampala Convention.
“Our target is that these principles become alive in our country by making sure that the Kampala Convention which we have rectified will be domesticated in our laws in the country.
“Nigeria after rectifying it, leaving it as it is, is not enough. The next step is to make sure that it is domesticated. To do that, we have taken it upon ourselves. Personally, I proposed the enactment into our laws and sponsored it in the House of Representatives because I believe in the potency of these principles and it can only be active in Nigeria if it is made to be part of our laws, especially as it concerns arbitrary displacement and upholding human rights of these IDPs and working in partnership with organisations like yours to make sure they are well taken care of.
“I proposed a bill, it has been approved by the House of Representatives and it has moved to the Senate for concurrence. The Senate’s report is ready and will be considered when we are back from our recess on April 29. After that the National Assembly’s clerk will take it to the president for assent.
“This has been done to make sure that activities around IDPs are governed by the framework. Government, also through legislative intervention, has provided for a commission for the protection and rehabilitation of IDPs and we call it NCFRMI, as a result of a Bill we passed in 2022 to strengthen it,” Kalu said.
While emphasising the need for the domestication of the legislations, Kalu also said that government is evolving formidable mechanisms to address the root causes of the displacements.
