FG launches policy to ensure protection of displaced, vulnerable citizens

The Federal Government on Tuesday launched the National Policy on the Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) to protect and assist the vulnerable people out of poverty.

Speaking shortly before the launch, minister of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Management and Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouq, said the policy intends to provide a framework for national responsibility towards prevention and protection of citizens and, in some cases, non-citizens, from “incidences of arbitrary and other forms of internal displacement, meet their assistance and protection needs during displacement, and ensure their rehabilitation, return, reintegration and relocation after displacement.”

She said “the policy spells out principles guiding humanitarian assistance and implementation of durable solutions in situations of internal displacement in Nigeria and has adopted the human rights-based approach and its principles.”

In her submission, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugee, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), said the primary mandate and obligation of the authorities is to ensure the protection and assistance of IDPs, other vulnerable people through the endorsement of this IDP policy by the federal government, adding that the policy is a demonstration of political will towards providing durable solution and mitigating the plight of all IDPs.

She said, “The policy launch has provided a veritable forum for enhanced awareness that will ensure common objectives and cardinal trust of the IDP policy document among key stakeholders.”

She noted that the inaugurated national working group will monitor the process of domestication, implementation and monitoring the policy in coordinated manner for the benefit of all the over two million IDPs spread across all the country.

She also explained that the launch of the policy will further assist in positioning President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision of securing the nation in diversifying the economy and taking 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years.