Mr Sani Zorro, Chairman, House Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), has called for transparency and accountability as Nigeria expects one billion dollars humanitarian intervention fund from international donors.
Zorro made the call on Friday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
According to him, the Nigerian delegation is currently participating in the Global Donor Conference for member countries of the Lake Chad Basin in Oslo, Norway.
Zorro said with the magnitude of the North-East humanitarian crises, which was of global knowledge, “it is an open book that the IDPs and returning refugees need desperate protection and assistance”.
He said that “we should be hopeful for a fruitful deliberation for a one billion dollar intervention fund to scale up the humanitarian assistance in the North-East”.
Zorro said that the funds, when obtained, should be judiciously spent in assisting the vulnerable persons.
“We do hope that Nigeria will be able to generate such intervention as well as resources both in cash and kind because the situation in the North-East is really severe and very dire.
“The Nigerian crises is well known to the global community and we have had sympathisers who include quite a lot of International NGOs that are active in Nigeria, especially in the North-East.
“We at the National Assembly therefore insist that principles of accountability as well as transparency must be respected at all times as all these interventions from foreign counties are not properly tracked.
“Since they are not captured in the Appropriation Act, we as legislators, in the exercise of our mandate to oversight the executive arm, are unable to track them properly.
“We will continue to insist that best practices are applied when it comes to disbursing and tracking these interventions because they need to be monitored and evaluated properly,’’ Zoro said.
Zorro commended the efforts of the National Emergency Management Agency and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs for doing their best even in the face of dwindling resources
He said that in spite of donor fatigue, “there is optimism for more donor funds which Nigeria will solicit for during the Syrian global conference scheduled to hold in April.”
The legislator explained that the United Nations, also a participant at the conference, should be able to solicit assistance on behalf of Nigeria.
Zorro said that the UN was in the best position to do an advocacy on behalf of Nigerian IDPs. (NAN)