IMPACT OF THE PHENOMENON OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS ON HUMAN SECURITY IN NIGERIA

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IMPACT OF THE PHENOMENON OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS ON HUMAN SECURITY IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Human security refers to the value of life of the people of a particular society. Anything that reduces the quality of life, which could include; conflict, scarcity of vital resources, environmental degradation or demographic pressures, infringes on human security is considered a threat to human security (Dhirathiti, 2011). In its simplest form, issues ranging from poverty, unemployment, conflict, violence, sicknesses and diseases, to environmental degradation, natural disasters, domestic violence, transnational crimes, and human rights abuses constitute factors which cause insecurity in individuals thereby leading to displacement of these persons from their habitual homes (Betts, et al., 2006). One of the significant symptoms of human insecurity crises is internally displaced persons. As opined by the United Nations Guiding Principles, these are ‘persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border’ (Oladeji, 2015, p. 44). Internally displaced persons receive little or no attention from the government of their habitual residence. These persons leave their comfort for a life of uncertainty elsewhere which triggers insecurity from within them coupled with the minimal attention received from government thereby exposing these people to economic threats, health threats, personal threats, political threats, environmental threats and community threats. Great concerns have been generated by both local and international agencies due to the poor living conditions of these persons which in turn, leads to poor sanitations therefore raise in sicknesses and diseases (Emmanuelar, 2015).

Importantly, internally displaced persons become dependent on others for basic amenities either on the host community or external intervention (Brookings, 2008). With all these, internally displaced persons’ crises make it very difficult for the government to actualize the Millennium Sustainable Goals (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016).

Human displacement remains one of the most significant humanitarian challenges facing the world. Of the 33.3 million internally displaced persons in the world (exclusive of the development-induced displacement), 15 million internally displaced persons can be found in Africa, with an increase of 7.5% between 2013 and 2014 and Nigeria hosting over 3.300,000 IDPs (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016, p. 194). The issue of human displacement in Africa involves more of internally displaced persons than refugees (United Nations Human Committee on Rights [UNHCR], 2012). This is due to the fact that after the Cold War, armed conflict took on a new dimension to include wars between non-state actors within the state and the sovereign state unlike the pre-Cold War era which saw armed conflict as conflict between sovereign states (Emmanuelar, 2015). As the number of internally displaced persons continue to increase, attempts at mitigating this crisis becomes more challenging for troubled countries. Notably, global efforts at managing displacement have concentrated more on refugees than internally displaced persons, yet the internally displaced person’s crisis equally constitutes a challenge to global civilization (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016). Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes to seek safety unfamiliar to them in the process losing their assets and being exposed to enormous hardship.

In the midst of these hardships, these displaced persons experience challenges with regards to their rights and their welfare condition. More than half of the world’s internally displaced persons can be found in Africa (Crisp, 2010). Recently, in Uganda an estimated 1.4million persons were displaced by conflict whereas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) an estimated 1.5million displaced persons while in Sudan, over 6million persons were displaced. However, only 30,000 displaced persons became refugees from Uganda, for Sudan 703,000 persons became refugees and for the Democratic Republic of Congo, 469,000 persons became refugees with the rest of the population as internally displaced persons

(UNHCR, 2004, p. 1). Some factors have been identified which leads to the continual rise of the numbers of internally displaced persons as against refugees.

The latest facet of wars from inter-state wars to intra-state wars is the most important factor. In addition to this, mountains and rivers sometimes hinder migration across national borders, coupled with the strict migration policies and hostility of neighboring countries which make it quite difficult for the migrants to seek refuge in foreign states (Betts, et al. 2006). Moreover, displaced persons often times prefer to stay back in their countries clinging to the smallest thought that everything would go to normalcy and that they would be home once again (Bhagwan, 2013).

In Nigeria, the post-election violence of 2011 saw about 65,000 persons internally displaced in the Northern part of the country (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016). An estimation by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reports that from July to October, 2012, a total of 2.1 million residents were sacked by flood in Nigeria. Between January, 2013 and February, 2014, about 470,565 and 143,164 persons were displaced in Nigeria by internal conflicts and natural disasters, respectively, while internal displacement cuts across 24 states of the federation (Osagioduwa & Oluwakorede, 2016, p. 195). Reports have shown that a good number of persons are displaced as results of both federal and state governments’ activities such as demolitions, the oil explorations in the Niger-Delta region leading to environmental degradation and pollution, loss of the people’s sources of livelihood in the region.

Under the Governor Fashola’s led administration, over 1 million people were displaced from the demolition of Ijora, Oshodi, Makoko and many other communities (Hamzat, 2013, p. 1). Although the causes of displacement differ, armed conflict and other forms of mass violence are the major causes of human displacement in the country. Since 2009 however, continuous and recurrent violence caused by Boko Haram insurgency in the Northern region of the country has resulted in the rapid increase of the number of internally displaced persons in the region. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded over 1 million internally displaced persons as of April 2015. However, the number of internally displaced persons as at December 2015 increased to over 2 million IDPs in the region. This is evident due to the Boko Haram insurgency which is identified as the major cause of the internal displacement of people in the region with a percentage of 91.98% (Alobo & Obaji, 2016, p. 30). Moreover, just like the number of recorded internally displaced persons in the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) increased from 390,000 at December 2014 to more than 2 million at December, 2015 (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [OCHA], 2015, p. 3). Northern Nigeria is a region of the country which has some of the least human indexes in the country. “71.5% of the population resides in abject poverty; over half of the residents are mal-nourished; about 85% are illiterate; and 60% are formally unemployed” (Abdulazeez, 2016, p. 4). This explains the attractiveness of the Boko Haram sect in the region. The group recorded chains of attacks in various forms against local and international actors therefore leading to the displacement of over 2 million people across northern Nigeria (Oyewole, 2016, p. 1). One of the consequences of this movement’s violence is the displacement of people from their habitual homes as a result of fear over their lives. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), recorded as at 2013, 3.3 million displaced persons in Nigeria especially as a result of the insurgency. It also recorded over 1 million internally displaced persons as of April 2015 and at December 2015, the total figure of IDPs identified in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe amounted to 2,152,000 people (Alobo & Obaji, 2016, p. 30). From the total figure of internally displaced persons in this region, the examination shows that “13.33 per cent were displaced due to communal clashes, 0.99 per cent by natural disasters and 85.68 per cent as a result of insurgency attacks by Boko Haram’ activities in the region” (Obikaeze & Onuoha, 2016, p. 4).

The Nigerian constitution places the responsibility of the welfare and the security of the general public on the government (Adamu & Rasheed, 2016). However, the Nigerian government has over the years failed in discharging the constitutional responsibilities that expects them to provide a secured and safe environment for both lives and properties of her citizens, which has caused insecurity in some states hence leading to human displacement for the fear of their lives. In a bid to curb the IDP crisis in Nigeria, the federal government of Nigeria, along with other African states became a signatory to the African Union Convention for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons also known as the Kampala

Convention of 2009. The Convention reflects the international guidance provided in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as an international standard setting norm on IDPs (Ekpa & Dahlan, 2016). The main objective of the Kampala Convention is to “promote and strengthen regional and national measures to prevent or mitigate, prohibit and eliminate root causes of internal displacement as well as provide for durable solutions” (as cited in Kampala Convention, 2009, p.4). The establishment of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) by the federal government was a bid to address and respond swiftly to emergency situations in the country. The Nigerian government has made several unending efforts to addressing the plights of IDPs by putting in place different strategies to address the IDP crisis, paradoxically, the problems of hunger, overcrowding, poor sanitation, joblessness and insecurity continues to persist among internally displaced persons across the country (Itumo & Nwefuru, 2016). Moreover, there are IDP camps set up in over 200 local government areas of Nigeria. These camps are provided in collaboration with the United Nations, other international organizations, and non-profit organizations (UNHCR, 2014). The Nigerian government also established programs to help alleviate the IDP crisis in the region such as the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI). These efforts seem to have yielded little or no impact as crisis of internally displaced persons persists in the country.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Despite all these efforts of the government to alleviate the IDP crisis, there seems to be obvious inadequacy of programmes and effective delivery of the strategies of government in tackling the challenges of IDPs in Nigeria. Thus, the needs to come up with better or improved strategies that will help the existing effort of governments (federal, state and local) to tackle the problem of the internally displaced persons became imperative at this juncture. This study therefore, investigates the impacts of IDP on human security with particular focus on Northern Nigeria. It aims at examining the extent to which the strategies put in place to address the crisis of IDPs with a view to proffer alternative strategies in addressing the crisis in the country. It is against this background that this study seeks to examine the extent to which internally displaced person’s crisis constitutes a threat to human security in the Northern Nigeria between 2009 -2016. It also interrogates how effective are the strategies put in place to address IDP crisis in the area.

1.3 Specific Objectives of the study

To determine the kind of insecurity caused by Internally Displaced Persons.

To establish the effective strategies adopted in installing normalcy to the internally displaced persons.

To determine the causes of human insecurity caused by internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

1.4 Research Questions

The study attempts to provide answers to the following questions:

What are the drivers of human insecurity caused by internally displaced Persons in Nigeria?

What kind of human insecurity is obtainable from the internally displaced persons in Nigeria?

What are the effective modalities adopted by the relevant authorities to ameliorate human insecurity caused by internally displaced persons in Nigeria?

1.5 Statement of Hypotheses

The study developed and formulated the following hypotheses for testing:

H0: There are no significant drivers of human insecurity caused by internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

H1: There are significant drivers of human insecurity caused by internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

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