The Senate has urged the Ministry of Finance to release all monies due to the North-East Development Commission and other relevant agencies to enable them address the humanitarian crises in the sub region.
This followed the adoption of a motion on the dire state of humanitarian crises in Nigeria especially in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states by Senator Ali Ndume at plenary.
Ndume who sponsored the motion stressed that other agencies that the fund should be released to include National Emergency Management Agency and the National Refuges Commission.
He commended the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in confronting various humanitarian crises in the Northern part of the country.
He lauded Buhari’s efforts in addressing menace of Boko Haram and ISWA in the North- East, farmers/headers clashes in the North Central and banditry and kidnapping in the North West.
Ndume said 7.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the North East, while 2.7 million required food and 1.1 million were malnourished children who need nutritional support in 2019.
He said there were threats to farming activities, which would result in serious food insecurity.
He said United Nations office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs office in Nigeria had reported that 1.2 billion dollars (About N420 billion) was required to address the humanitarian crisis in 2019.
Ndume said the total amount allocated to the NEDC including its take- off grant is N55 billion only.
The figure according to Ndume is less than 14 per cent of the total annual requirement of 1.2 billion dollars for humanitarian crisis in the area.
He said the NEDC established to address issues relating to humanitarian crisis is not been adequately funded.
He said: “Out of N10 billion take off- grant approved by the president and N45 billion allocated in the 2019 Appropriation Act, nothing has so far been released to the organisation.”
Ndume said the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund had raised 70 million dollars from 17 donor countries, adding that support had also been received from the private sector in Nigeria.
He commended the efforts of Victims Support Fund, Dangote Foundation and Indimi Foundation for their humanitarian support.
He, however, decried activities of some Non- Governmental Organisations in deployment of funds, saying that the monies are being spent more on providing logistic for the NGOs.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that contributions by senators at plenary over the motion hinged on the need to address the humanitarian crisis via adequate provision of funds.
The contributions also centred on the need for transparently in the management of the funds.
The Senate in its resolution urged the Federal Government, in addition to fighting the security challenge in the affected states to pay attention to humanitarian crises.
It also urged the federal government to submit to the National Assembly supplementary budget to meet the funding gap required to address the crises in the sub region.
It also resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to visit the states affected to have first-hand information of the issue.
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