NAN-H-9
Donation
By Mohammed Mamman
Damaturu, April 9, 2017 (NAN) The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons has donated 450 water pump machines and electric transformer to support irrigation farming under the Yobe post insurgency recovery plan.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sa’adiya Umar-Farouk, National Commissioner of the NCRMIDP, distributed the items in Damaturu on Sunday.
Umar-Farouk said that items were provided to assist the displaced returnees in boosting their productivity for economic rehabilitation.
“The displaced persons are mostly farmers, who lost their means of livelihood to the insurgency.
“These machines are provided to help them return to their trade and contribute to the economic recovery in the state.
“We are trying to provide sustainable means of livelihood where people can fend for themselves as they return to their communities, rather than depending on donations,’’ the commissioner said.
She explained that the commission considered the most vulnerable, especially women, orphans and economically disadvantaged persons, as beneficiaries to enable them rebuild their lives.
Gov. Ibrahim Gaida of Yobe commended the commission for providing the items “at a time when the attention of the state government is shifting from humanitarian assistance to resettlement and rehabilitation of the IDPs’’.
Gaidam, who was represented by Alhaji Musa Jidawa, Executive Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), said the support would complement the reconstruction and rehabilitation programme of the state government.
“Government recently organised a retreat to sensitise stakeholders on its efforts to shift from humanitarian intervention to reconstruction and rehabilitation.
“So, this support is part of the programme for durable solution to empower the returnee IDPs,’’ the governor said.
According to him, the issue of recovery is capital intensive and no government or organisation can do it alone.
“We appeal to the Federal Government to come in, especially in the reconstruction of public infrastructures like roads and others.’’ (NAN)
MM/AIB/EAL
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Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde/Ekemini Ladejobi