Dogara blames Buhari, but admits collective shame for proliferation of IDPs
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara has blasted Northern leaders, including himself and President Muhammadu Buhari, for doing nothing to end the pain of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), most of whom are Northerners.
Dogara moaned the North has not fared well in prosperity, as the indices of development do not favour the region, highlighted by the recent report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which again fingers the callous Northern elite.
He bared his mind a in paper titled “The IDP Question as a stain on our Conscience” he delivered at the 7th Henna Balls Awards Night organised by Torzali Magazine in Abuja.
Night has fallen on Nigeria, especially the North, he lamented, and “it’s a night so tepid for most of our people so much so that they crave cruel kindness, just something that has meaning even if it’s meaningless.
“If you look at the condition of Nigeria, especially the Northeast, and you don’t feel the pains, you are the one that is sick. No thanks to the activities of these dishevelled terrorists or bandits.”
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North buffeted on all sides
“We all know that the North bears nearly 90 per cent of the insecurity in the country. If estimates are anything to go by, not less than 50,000 Northerners have been killed while over three million have been displaced in the Northeast alone.
“No one has the record of Northern lives lost to rural banditry, farmer-herder clashes and ethno-religious conflicts,” Dogara lamented, per The Guardian.
He said the number grows exponentially when added to deaths in urban violence unleashed by an increasing army of mostly jobless youths suffering from substance use disorder.
“What have we done as individuals and as the Northern establishment? I do not make any excuse, I am part of the establishment. We have done nothing to our collective shame!
“Imagine the Northern establishment had organised a submit where select IDPs from all the camps are invited to share their plight and thereafter establish a trust fund for IDPs in which every Northerner is required to pay in his/her month’s salary within a quarter while those who can give more, give as God lays it in their hearts.
“No doubt, if that had happened, we would have set aside enough funds to cater for the needs of all IDPs regardless of what the government chooses to do.”
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