TheCable

Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno state, has asked the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons to focus on creating permanent resettlement houses for IDPs.

Zulum spoke on Wednesday in Maiduguri, the state capital, when he hosted Basheer Mohammed, federal commissioner in charge of the refugee commission.

The governor said the time had come for the commission to shift focus from investing on government-controlled IDP camps.

He said while the state will continue to provide and coordinate donor humanitarian interventions for the welfare of displaced persons, it is, however, time to move from the phase of proliferation of IDP camps to stabilising displaced persons.

This, he said, could be done by resettling them in permanent houses and providing them with means of livelihoods in safe areas that could be near existing IDP camps.

“We are happy with all your interventions. However, we will request that you do not focus on IDP camps but rather on stabilisation  for the IDPs and by that, I mean contributing in the construction of re-settlement houses which can be allocated to households as their permanent places to live and we then provide them with means of livelihoods to sustain themselves,” Zulum said.

“As a government, we are moving from the phase of enhancing IDP camps to resettlement. By resettlement, I do not mean having to go and build houses elsewhere, the houses could be near the IDP camps, we will provide the land.”

He said his administration has created an agency for the coordination of all humanitarian donors and development activities in the state for the purpose of streamlining so as to stop duplication and give policy direction.

This, he said, will enable the state government take the lead in determining its priorities and policy direction.