The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya-Umar Farouq, has called on stakeholders to work toward sustaining the successes recorded on migration issues in Nigeria.
Farouq made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the opening session of the two-day 2021 National Migration Dialogue tagged “Human mobility in the context of sustainable national development”.
Represented by the Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Dr Fatima Waziri-Azi, the minister said sustainability measures are necessary to ensure maximum success.
He urged the stakeholders to brace up to their responsibilities of achieving the goals set on migration programmes.
“I have no doubt that at the end of the day, stakeholders will have comprehensive understandings and come up with actionable recommendation on the issue of mobility for our national development.
“I enjoin you to make good use of this opportunity for national migration governance, and also on sustainability of migration programmes.
“We want to see improvement in your organisation of things, your contribution, your engagement and advocacy strategies,” Farouq stressed.
The National Coordinator, Civil Society Network on Migration and Development, Mr Emeka Obiezu, said that the dialogue would chat a new course and develop a better framework to shape migration issues.
Obiezu said the dialogue demonstrated that the government is taking the CSOs serious on measures to tackle migration issues.
“The process of organising this event and cohosting between government and civil society with unimaginable support of partners is even more monumental.
“This speaks on the volume of partnership, collaborations and a clear demostration of the whole of government efforts and society approach in driving the new way of working partnerships.
“We are grateful to Nigeria migration governance system under the able coordination of National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) for providing us the platform.
“NCFRMI is our commission and together we shall deliver. We commended the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation for supporting us by building our capacity and trusting our judgement in this regard.
“We thank IOM immensely for discovering the significance of the initiative the very first time we muted the idea and for going all the way exhausting all its arsenal of negotiation to pulling in the interest and funding support of our major funders,” he said.
Also speaking at the event was the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Charles Esimone, who noted that the Centre for Migration Studies located in the school had been living up to its responsibilities in terms of sensitisation and advocacy on migration issues.
Esimone, who was represented by Prof Ike Odimegwu, the Director of the Centre, congratulated the network of civil society organisations in Nigeria for focusing on migration development, adding that the centre had grown through collaboration.
He charged all CSOs belonging to the network to brace up to their responsibilities and make Nigeria proud.