’Nigeria needs N420bn to address humanitarian assistance in N’East’

…As Senate urges Finance ministry to release all allocations to NEDC, others

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

About $1.2 billion, equivalent of N420 billion, is required to address the humanitarian crises in Nigeria this year alone as number of persons in need of humanitarian assistance in the country rise to 7.1 million.

However, the total amount allocated to the North East Development Commission (NEDC) including take-off grant is N55 billion equivalent of $157.14 million only which is less than 14% of the total annual requirement of $1.2 billion.

These were part of revelations made by Senator Ali Ndume (Borno South) while presenting a motion on the dire state of humanitarian crises in Nigeria especially Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, on the floor of the Senate on Thursday.

The Senator, who quoted recent data released by the United Nations Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), said there are already more than 1.8 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the three states with over 60,000 orphans.

Ndume was concerned that the affected states especially Borno which is the epicentre of insurgency is adjudged to be part of the poorest region on earth by the United Nation’s Human Development Index has suffered an estimated destruction of about $9.2 billion equivalent of N3.22 trillion which cannot be rebuit in the next 50 years.

He said with an estimated budget of slightly above N100 billion annually and insignificant amount of Internally generated revenue, the state cannot handle the humanitarian crisis alone.

Ndume noted with regrets that over 80% of fund realised by international Non-Governmental organisations are spent on overhead cost and personal effects while the remaining 20% spent on IDPs.

He noted that the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund with a purse of $70 million has been overstretched and donor fatigue has started setting in .

“For example, donations by international donor countries continues to reduce from $730m in 2017 to $702mm in 2018 and $275m in 2019,” he said.

Appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for his passion for developing the devastated North East , Ndume noted that “out of the N10 billion take-off grant approved by the President and the N45 billion allocated in the 2019 Appropriation Act, nothing has so far been released to the Commission”.

The Senate after full deliberation, called on the Federal Ministry of Finance to release all monies due to the North East Development Commission, National Emergency Management Agency, and the National Refugees Commission to enable them address the humanitarian crises.

Also, the Senate urged the executive arm of government to submit to the National Assembly supplementary budget to meet the funding gap that is required to address humanitarian crises in the country.

It urged the Federal Government to in addition to fighting the security threats in the affected states, pay attention to the humanitarian crises caused by the Boko Haram /ISWA, farmers – herders clashes and banditry activities.

The Senate agreed to set up an ad – hoc Committee to be led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to visit the affected states in order to have first hand information on the issue raised and report back to the Senate.