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Tag: Displaced persons

  • Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons

    Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons

    In crisis situations, there are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). These are hapless victims of whatever crisis befell their communities and forced them to leave; they are usually the responsibility of government to care for till peace returns to their troubled homesteads and they get resettled back. Not so with Failed Doomsday Displaced Persons (FDDPs). These are people who chose to believe a lie and self-dislocated their own lives – not because of external aggression but from inner delusion. Anyone in this category cannot hope for government to rehabilitate them. They are on their own.

    It is one week now since the failed prediction of a date for the biblical ‘rapture,’ and those taken in are ruing their self-dispossession in gullible anticipation of an escape from the earth. Rapture is an end-time event by which believers in the Christian faith expect to be supernaturally translocated from the terrestrial plane ahead of a coming period of intense suffering, known as the Tribulation, by those left behind. This event in biblical narrative will mark the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    South African preacher, Pastor Joshua Mhlakela, recently gained worldwide attention after he claimed Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said he would return during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, which held between 22nd and 24th September. “The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not, the rapture will happen in 14 days from now,” Mhlakela had told a YouTube channel, adding: “I’m a billion percent sure that we are going to see the Lord, the rapture is going to happen. I don’t know how to assure you, but I give you a billion percent that it is going to happen. The date of the 23rd, which is going to be the rapture of the church, is irrefutable and final.”

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    On the day predicted by Mhlakela, videos showed hundreds of people gathered in woods, waiting to be taken up. The preacher himself went live online, joined by some followers, declaring with confidence that the rapture was imminent. After several hours passed without anything happening, Mhlakela said, “I wonder how God works this out. What I know is that it will happen within these two days, but I cannot tell how He arranges the minutes and the seconds, because at any moment something could happen.” He urged his followers to be patient and hopeful.

    Those who believed Mhlakela had taken steps to sign out from planet earth. Social media platforms were flooded with videos from devastated persons who were so convinced doomsday was coming they resigned their jobs and gave away prized possessions. Tilahun Desalegn, an Australian, shared a clip of his car being towed away, saying: “I won’t need her beyond September, because I’m going home.” Kingsalem Igwe, a self-identified Nigerian prophet, said in a video shared on TikTok: “I’m here with all humility to apologise to everyone. I only believed a man who claimed Jesus told him.” Others were seen sobbing over the failed prediction, lamenting that they now had to go back to work. Well, they’re in good time to wake up to the smell of coffee!

  • UNDP, EU engage 600 displaced persons in Borno

    The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and European Union (EU) have engaged over 600 persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in environmental sanitation programme in Borno, the Head of UNDP North-East sub-office, Mizuho Yokoi, has said.

    Yokoi made this known yestersday at the inauguration of Sustainable Waste Management and Environmental Protection project in Maiduguri.

    She said the programme was designed to fast track community clean-up, waste management and sanitation services in the state.

    She added that the project, which was being implemented with the support of the EU, focused on empowerment and providing means of livelihood to persons in insurgency affected communities.

    Yokoi explained that the UN agency engaged persons affected by the conflict in emergency employment to undertake waste and drains clearance, as well as provide sanitation services in selected communities.

    The UNDP official noted that sequel to massive displacement in countryside and increased population in Maiduguri metropolis, solid waste and debris from the conflict had accumulated, thereby, exposing residents to pollution and health risks.

    She said: “Through partnership with EU, over eight million Dollars will be invested in activities aimed at ridding the region of debris both from the conflict, reconstruction and cleaning up communities in Maiduguri, Bama and Biu local government areas of the state.

    She added that “the project is part of UNDP’s early recovery initiative to resuscitate households’ source of livelihood that will sustain communities beyond humanitarian aid. Beneficiaries of the intervention include Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and their hosts in communities. Income generated from opportunities like this will help families to meet household needs, including feeding, medication and children’s school fees. Previous beneficiaries of similar opportunities have used income earned to start small businesses and support other community members.”

    Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr Kurt Cornelis, said the union was implementing a three-year environment and livelihood support programme in Borno.

    Cornelis said about 12,000 persons were projected to benefit from the programme in the conflict affected areas of the state.

    He explained that “it is our hope that the processes and procedures of the implementation will contribute significantly to attitudinal change in caring for the environment in general.”

    Borno State Deputy Governor Alhaji Usman Durkwa, described the project as ‘timely’, saying it would provide jobs to the teeming unemployed youth, enhance waste management and control environmental degradation.

  • UNDP trains over 150 displaced persons in Northeast

    UNDP trains over 150 displaced persons in Northeast

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said it trained over 150 displaced youths, women and men from the Northeast in various entrepreneurship skills, competences and behaviours.

    The UNDP’s Country Director, Mr Samuel Bwalya told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), yesterday that the training, which was conducted in the three most affected states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, was to help them start their small businesses successfully.

    He noted that the Northeast had witnessed widespread destruction of both infrastructures and livelihoods by the Boko-Haram.

    “Mostly drawn from communities ravaged by the nine-year long crisis, the trainees either had their businesses destroyed by Boko Haram or have found themselves residing in new locations with no means of sustaining themselves and their families.

    “UNDP, with support from the Government of Norway, has provided vocational skills training in metal fabrication, tailoring, catering and decoration, mobile phone repairs, computer repairs, mechatronics, spray painting, among others to victims of insurgency.

    “The provision is part of efforts aimed at providing catalytic ingredients for communities to thrive again and lay a foundation for long term development to take place in a region,” he said.

    He said the beneficiaries were also supported with start-up equipment so that they could secure alternative means of livelihoods beyond humanitarian handouts.

    Bwalya said that over 1.7 million people remained displaced across the region while hundreds had fled into neighbouring Cameroon.

    “Not only have skilled labour become rare in communities because of mass displacement, victims have either lost their sources of livelihood or have their breadwinners killed by the insurgent group.

    “Many have remained dependent on humanitarian aid. Entrepreneurship skills are needed to ensure that those with vocational skills, who wish to either own businesses or to start anew, run their enterprises successfully,” Bwalya said.

    Bwalya said UNDP was investing in these initiatives so that beneficiaries could apply knowledge acquired from these trainings to establish new businesses or expand existing ones and employ others within their communities.

    “This will consolidate UNDP’s ongoing efforts in meeting urgent early recovery needs in communities affected by Boko Haram crisis.

    “UNDP has been investing in early recovery interventions in the region to prepare communities for the days after the crisis.

    “Prolonged development deficit in the region exposed millions to different kinds of vulnerabilities, a reality also attributable to the root causes of the crisis,” he said.

    He said UNDP was in the process of developing a comprehensive programme aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in Nigeria.

    According to him, the programme will be anchored on three pillars; employable through market driven skills acquisition, innovation and entrepreneurship including financing for small businesses.

    “Once launched, this programme will support the development of entrepreneurship and promote innovation in the country, to address unemployment, especially among youths,” he said.

    Nahyani Waraya one of the trainees at the end of the six-day entrepreneurship training workshop said that her life as a business woman would never be the same again.

    “I will not run my business the way I did it before UNDP trained me on how to become a successful entrepreneur,” she stated.

    Another trainee, Susannah Geoffrey, a 39 year-old mother of five, said that she was teaching in a primary school in Madagali before the place was attacked in 2015.

    She commended UNDP and said that the training helped her to understand how to do business and succeed, adding that she would impact the knowledge acquired on others.

    Another beneficiary, Mohammad Mortala, from Maiduguri said the training was first of its kind and thanked the UNDP for impacting knowledge on him.

    Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Mr Haruna Furo, the Permanent Secretary of Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, urged the graduates to apply their newly acquired knowledge for their businesses  to succeed.

    Haruna commended UNDP for the initiative, stating that the intervention would go a long way in changing lives of people in the state.

    “Thank you, UNDP for the support and for investing in our people and our communities,” he added.

  • Fed Govt to train 11,300 displaced persons in Northeast

    Fed Govt to train 11,300 displaced persons in Northeast

    The Federal Government plans to train 11,300 persons displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast, says  Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige.

    Ngige spoke at the inauguration of the programme yesterday in Maiduguri.

    The minister was represented by Mr Ibrahim Jibiya, the Director, Skills.

    He said the beneficiaries would be trained under the Skill Acquisition Programmes of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE).

    He said  the programme would help to fast track rehabilitation, resettlement and stabilisation in the war-ravaged region.

    Ngige said that the Federal Government accorded priority to youth and women empowerment through skill acquisition and entrepreneurship development programmes.

    “The president is determined to empower youths and women through articulated policies and programmes, to create job opportunities and enhance wealth creation in the society.

    “Employment is a key component of individual and national development. It provides platforms for supporting and fulfilling individual personal achievements and goals as well as contributing to the national economy.”

    The minister lauded the Borno State Government over its agriculture transformation programme designed to diversify the state’s economy.

    The NDE Director-General, Alhaji Nasiru Argungu, said the agency would train 4,000 persons in Borno, 3,100 in Yobe, 2,500 in Adamawa and 1,700 in Gombe.

    According to him, 70 per cent of the beneficiaries will be women and the vulnerable, adding that the beneficiaries will be exposed to various trades.

    He listed the trades to include the production of pomade, soap, jelly, perfumes, tie and dye and hair dressing, among others.

    “The male beneficiaries will be trained in carpentry, block moulding, auto-mechanic and GSM repairs,’’ the NDE boss said.

    He said that the agency had designated training centres in the participating states while monthly stipends would be paid to the trainees.

    Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State hailed the Federal Government for the gesture, saying that it would go a long way in improving the social and economic well-being of the displaced persons.

    Shettima called for the expansion of the training scheme to enhance participation in the programme.

  • 300 displaced persons return to Bayelsa

    300 displaced persons return to Bayelsa

    About 300 indigenes, who fled Peremabiri, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, two years ago, following outbreak of violence, returned to their community at the weekend.

    The crisis in Peremabiri community broke out because of the 2015 governorship election.

    The Paramount Ruler of the community, Progress Never-Die, who was shot by hoodlums during the crisis, was flown abroad by the state government ‎for adequate medical attention.

    The internally displaced persons consisting of women and children were camped in Yenagoa by the state government after they were forced to flee their riverine community in 2015.

    The displaced persons, who were, however, happy to return to their community on Saturday, applauded the government for taking care of them.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson said their safe return signaled the dawn of peace to the once troubled community.

    He expressed gratitude to Governor Seriake Dickson for providing a safe place in Yenagoa for the displaced persons and picking up all their bills for almost two years.

    He said the governor demonstrated the commitment of a leader who is passionate about the welfare of his people.

    Iworiso-Markson also thanked security agents for restoring the peace in the community and charged them to maintain the peace.

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    He also called on leaders and members of Peremabiri to work towards building a strong bond of unity, tolerance and love.

    Iworiso-Markson urged them not to allow their community to go through such a dark moment again because of the interest of few ‎persons.

    He said: “Now that the once displaced persons have safely returned to their community and are integrated, it is time for members of the community to work towards maintaining peace and stability. For us as a government we have done our part and we will continue to do the needful.

    ” We thank His Excellency, Governor Seriake Dickson for his support to the people and also security agents for the role they played leading to the return of the people. This government is all about peace, security‎ and the welfare of our people”.

  • High turnout of displaced persons for Yobe bye-elections

    High turnout of displaced persons for Yobe bye-elections

    The bye election held in Yobe State on Saturday had more displaced people coming to votes than residents of Damaturu the state capital.
    Our correspondent who went round the metropolis saw a multitude of intending voters at both Government Day Secondary School and Phase I, two designated voting centres for the IDPs from Gujba Local Government.
    The situation was however a contrast across other centres meant for residents of Damaturu as many people were not keen to vote in the election.
    As at noon, many polling units in the town have recorded less than fifty votes in their polling units. At Ajari I, II & III, the presiding officers informed that only 15, 24, and 19 people were accredited and voted.

    The National Assembly seat for Gujba, Gulani, Damaturu and Tarmuwa Federal Constituency was left vacant by the minister of state foreign affairs Hon. Khadija Bukar Ibrahim.
    Meanwhile, the election was held amidst tight security with streets of Damaturu and other affected council areas deserted. Businesses were also shut down in the four local council area to allow security operatives ensure a hitch free election.
    Elections officers arrived polling stations in good time as accreditation and election commenced on schedule.
    Khadija Bukar Ibrahim while casting her votes at the Emir of Damaturu polling station commended INEC and electoral officers for the conduct of the exercise.
    She also praised the conduct of the electorate who she said conducted themselves in orderly manner.
    The National secretary of the All Progressives Party, Mai Malla Buni, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim and Hon. Bukar Goni were all in the state to cast their votes.

  • Skye Bank employees raise hope for displaced persons

    The beauty of this life is to see someone to lean on when the going gets tough. For the employees of Skye Bank Plc, who formed the ‘Employees Volunteerism Project’, giving hope to the hopeless and displaced people within the society is a passion that must be nurtured. COLLINS NWEZE writes on how the group is impacting lives positively in the society.  

    THE world will become a better place when individuals, groups and organizations create opportunities that give hope and care to the needy and displaced persons within the society.

    That is while Skye Bank staff, are championing the Employee Volunteerism Project formed by the bank’s staff to make the world a better place by caring for the displaced and needy people within the Nigerian society.

    Skye Bank Executive Director, Abuja and Northern Directorate, Idris Yakubu said the Employee Volunteerism Project’s aim is to positively affect the lives of the displaced people in the country who have gone through a lot in recent years due to the outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency, in the Northeast of he country, and subsequently to the rest of the north.

    The Boko Haram insurgency, he said, has created a major refugee crisis in the country.

    It was therefore expected when last week, employees of the Skye Bank Plc  donated relief materials worth N20 million to the displaced people in Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory.

    It was the Employees Volunteerism Project members that distributed relief materials to over 120 families consisting of about 800 individuals in New Karshi, Nasarawa State, in addition to reaching out to another 100 families of Chibok people at their camp in Kuje, Federal Capital Territory.

    The group listed the relief materials as 2000 bags of rice, 2000 bags of Indomie noodles, beverages, blankets, tooth paste, pampers, semovita, sanitary pads, among others.

    The Skye Bank partnered with two non governmental organisations that have been working with the displaced people, Likeminds Initiative and Ombus Organisation, to achieve the feat.

    The group explained that the sheer number of people involved in the refugee crisis makes the Nigerian case the largest internal refugee crisis in the world. It said nearly three million people have been displaced from their ancestral homes by the insurgency.

    The affected people have lost husbands, wives, children, parents, relations, shelter and means of their livelihood. Those who managed to scamper to safety are at the mercy of kind hearted Nigerians and the elements as most of them do not have decent shelter over their heads.

    In the various camps where they have been resettled, many have died of diseases and hunger while some are in a state of acute deprivation and want. Even though all of them have expressed their desire to return to their ancestral homes, the massive pillage and desecration of their land by the insurgents have made the prospect of their immediate return anything but feasible.

    As a show of concern and empathy for the plight of the internally displaced people in the country, employees of Skye Bank Plc have responded to the calls by concerned Nigerians that public spirited individuals and organisations should help the displaced people.

    Speaking during the distribution of the items to the beneficiaries, Yakubu, said the bank  staff took the noble initiative to positively affect the lives of the displaced people who have gone through a lot.

    He said the employees’ compassionate gesture demonstrated their love and empathy for the less privileged people in society and urged other associations and companies to emulate the gesture. He told the workers not to end their philanthropic gesture but to continue to give until they are no more distressed people.

    Also, the bank’s Head of Human Capital Management, Taiwo Olupeka, said the employees embarked on the ‘giving’ initiative in order to help the needy in the society and put smiles on their faces.

    According to him, the harrowing experiences of displaced persons in some parts of the country over the years called for public support. He said the ‘Employee Volunteerism Initiative’, now in its fifth year, had supported various causes ranging from public education, empowerment, among others.

    “We want to see to the welfare of the people in our immediate environment. Some years ago, four years to be precise, we instituted the ‘Employee Volunteerism Project’. What we are looking at is to touch people in our immediate environment. In 2012 and 2013, we decided to contribute money from our personal resources. We bought books and writing materials for some schools which were distributed to their students,” he said.

    Continuing, Olupeka said that in 2014, the group equally stepped up their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The group, he said, created 40 sub-groups to spread their good works across different areas of life. Many schools were painted, boreholes dug and toilets built in 40 locations.

    “This year, we are looking at the internally displaced people which is where government is interested in. Our intention is to provide for their basic needs-food. Here in Karshi, there are displaced people from six local government areas while those in Kuje are from Chibok.  We want to reach out to them from our little resources to give hope for a better tomorrow,” he said.

    A leader of the Chibok people, Shehu Moses, thanked the members of staff of Skye Bank for the kind gestures, describing the intervention as huge. He promised to ensure that the materials benefit the people.

    The founders of Likeminds Initiative and Ombus, Mrs. Fatimah Mohammed-Kyari and Mrs. Aisha Bello Tukur respectively, expressed their delight to work with Skye Bank to bring more joy to the displaced people.

    Kyari-Mohammed said the bank employees have demonstrated the humanism in them for which the displaced people will forever be grateful. She said the displaced people who have been displaced from their homelands depended on the goodwill of kind hearted as demonstrated by the bank employees.

  • Buhari seeks quick re-unification of displaced families

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs to intensify efforts to re-unite families whose members are currently scattered in different camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    He spoke after receiving a briefing from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Special Duties, Dr. Jamila Shu’ara, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Buhari, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, also called for a follow-up on the supervision and audit of constituency projects.

    Expressing concern about the well-being of children in the camps, he said that appropriate mechanisms must be put in place to ensure the proper up-bringing of the children so that they don’t grow up to become another national problem.

    Officials of the Ministry of the Federal Capital Territory (MFCT) also briefed President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House.

    At the end of the briefing, Vice President Osinbajo urged the MFCT to explore alternative sources to boost its revenue base and reduce its dependence on the currently lean resources of the Federal Government for the development and maintenance of infrastructure in Abuja.

    “With the coming of the FCT Internal Revenue Board and property taxation, you must be able to generate substantial income to take care of your needs,” the Vice President told the Permanent Secretary of the MFCT, Mr. John Chukwu and other officials of the Ministry.

    He praised the Permanent Secretary and his team for a “very comprehensive, very detailed and adequate reporting” on the activities of the Ministry.

    The Permanent Secretary said that all was now set for the introduction of a new tax regime in the Federal Capital Territory.

    “The property tax and the tenement rate will be collected together and a sharing formula has been devised between the Ministry and the council areas in order to avoid multiple taxation,” he stated.

  • Boko Haram: Union seeks support for displaced persons in Edo

    Boko Haram: Union seeks support for displaced persons in Edo

    The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has appealed for organizations, international donors and individuals to support the government in catering for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) who are victims of Boko Haram attacks.

    The national president of MHWUN, Mr Josiah Biolemoye made the appeal when he led other members of his executives to donate cash and food stuff worth about N2m to the IDP camp in Benin on Saturday .

    Biolemoye who alongside members of executives openly wept at the numbers of Boko Haram victims in the camp, stressed that there was no way government only can bring succour to the IDP’s.

    The president who described as tragidic, the pathetic stories told by some of the victims, said irrespective of tribe, religion or state, we all belong to one and the same country.

    He urged Nigerians to show love and be their brothers keepers by coming to the aid of these people.

    While praising efforts by government to put an end to the insurgency, he stressed that all hands must be on deck to address the menace.

    “Welfare of these people must be of priority not only to the government but to all Nigerians, organisations as well as international communities.

    “With the situation I met here in this camp in Edo today which is just one of the several camps in the country, there is no way welfare of this people can be left in the hand of the government alone.

    “We must all show to be truely our brothers keepers by coming to their aid. There is no assistance that will be too small for these people.

    “This camp in Edo, is being run by an individual who was only moved by their plead for assistance. We should all emulate the noble gesture of this pastor as well as other Nigerians that have in one way or the other come to the rescue of these people,” he stated.

    Meanwhile, the cleric who runs the camp, Solomon Folorunsho of the International Christian Centre for Mission said what he sees in the IDP’s are young and intelligent Nigerians who will move the country to greater height.

    About 1,500 IDP’s are in the camp in addition to over five hundred orphans previously catered for by the mission.

    The Boko Haram victims comprises mostly of children, women and men.

    The victims were brought in from the North East according to the cleric through another missionary group.