As part of the activities marking the 2016 World Humanitarian Day, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has sent a technical team to Maiduguri, Borno State, to conduct interviews with domestic and international stakeholders working in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP camps in the state.
A statement issued on Thursday by his media Adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said the purpose of the visit was to collect information about emergency relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts in the camps.
The team was directed to review the coordination between the government of Nigeria and NGO/INGOS, the capacity of service delivery programmes and receive feedback from the IDPs themselves.
The statement added that team, which had arrived the camps, interacted with groups of officials and volunteers of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), who reported that the government was doing all that it possibly could to aid and secure the IDPs.
“However, the complexity and scale of the emergency is far beyond the government’s capacity and that Nigeria simply cannot do it all alone,” the statement said.
Saraki was quoted as saying that following reports from aid agencies, greater international attention and a more robust response was needed to alleviate the plight of the over nine million Nigerians who are in need of relief in the Lake Chad Basin area.
“We cannot afford to take for granted the sacrifice and support of both our domestic and international partners in the Northeast. This is why we must all sit down as quickly as possible to plan the transition from crisis, to relief and beyond. We must expedite the processes that are needed to bring about the recovery and rehabilitation of the entire region,” the Senate President added.
