Thank you, Scandinavians

At the United Nations humanitarian conference in Oslo, Norway last month, donors played the Good Samaritan to the traumatized people of Nigeria’s North-East and the entire Lake Chad region when they raised $672 million (approximately N200bn) for the Boko Haram ravaged region. The amount raised is half of the $1.2 billion that the world body plans to raise over the next three years in order to mitigate the “drastically deteriorating” situation in Northern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region where 17 million people live in the most affected areas. Fourteen donors pledged $458 million for relief in 2017 and an additional $214 million for 2018 and beyond. Pledges were made by the European Commission, Norway, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Ireland, Finland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Republic of Korea.

With this donation, the humanitarian conference has done more than the Nigerian government in caring for Nigerian citizens who are trapped in the devastating fire stoked by insurgents. In the Federal Government’s 2017 budget, only N45 billion has been voted for the North-East. In recognition of this, the Presidential Committee on the North-East Initiative [PCNI] has sent an additional request for N100 billion to the National Assembly, as its assessment of the urgent needs of the three million persons affected by the crisis cannot be met by the amount earmarked in the budget. In spite of the biting economic recession, we urge the National Assembly to step up funding for the North East as the security and welfare of Nigerians should be paramount, over and above all other concerns. The international community should not be seen to appreciate the gravity of this problem more than our own government.

Nearly two years ago, we editorially called for a national and international Marshall Plan to help the North-East region recover from the Boko Haram debacle. The three most affected state governments in the region, with the assistance of the World Bank and the UN, have already compiled estimates of the losses suffered as well as current needs. Borno State government in particular has already commenced urgent reconstruction work with its meager resources. All three tiers of government, local, state and federal must heavily chip into this epic Marshall Plan. The private sector, local and international humanitarian agencies and NGOs should also do their own bit but we expect the biggest help to come from the governments of rich nations.

As the international funds are trickling in, it is essential for the Federal and state governments to set up credible and transparent internal arrangements for project implementation. This is because those international bodies that canvass for donations to the North-East cause are calling for accountability. For instance, Jamie Drummond, co-founder of ONE, an advocacy organization, said shortly after the fund raise that “the devil lies in the details and the angels of accountability need a bit more help than we’ve had so far. Local citizens’ groups on the ground, backed by anticorruption partners globally, need to be able to look more closely at what is new, what is not, and any discrepancy between what is pledged in Norway, and what is actually spent on lifesaving services delivered for citizens in each clinic and classroom across the region.”

From the foregoing, it is apparent that donors would monitor how the donations will be spent. We call on all those involved in the implementation to ensure that every project earmarked under the intervention is executed to the letter. Many bungled Niger Delta rehabilitation projects, on which billions of Naira were sunk but with nothing commensurate on ground to justify the intervention, should be a lesson for all. Such a disaster would put off foreign donors and jeopardize Nigeria’s chances of receiving more support from the international community.

As we urge the developed world to contribute more to the North-East and Lake Chad fund in the four more rounds of pledging conferences scheduled for later this year, we also call on wealthy Nigerians to chip in with financial and material support to ameliorate the plight of the victims of insurgency. It is the top priority of this generation.