Says With Average Life Expectancy of 55 Years, Children Cannot Spend a Quarter of Their Lives in Displacement
The Foundation for Peace Professionals (PeacePro) has called on the Federal Government to adopt a 2year national plan to phase out long term Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and replace them with purpose built communities where displaced Nigerians can rebuild their lives with dignity, security and economic opportunities.
PeacePro said Nigeria’s displacement crisis, triggered largely by the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009, has persisted for more than 15 years and can no longer be treated as a temporary humanitarian emergency.
PeacePro warned that the country is gradually creating a lost generation of children and young people who have spent their formative years in camps instead of classrooms, workplaces and thriving communities.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Abdulrazaq Hamzat, the organisation said the country’s low life expectancy makes the prolonged confinement of millions of citizens in IDP camps even more alarming.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s life expectancy at birth is approximately 55 years, among the lowest globally.
Hamzat said this means that Nigerians who have spent between 10 and 15 years in displacement have already lost between one fifth and more than one quarter of their expected lifetime to conflict and humanitarian dependence.
“An IDP camp was never designed to become a permanent home. It was created as an emergency response. When people spend 10 to 15 years in camps in a country where life expectancy is only about 55 years, we are asking them to sacrifice a significant part of their lives waiting for a future that may never come.”
PeacePro noted that many children born during the insurgency have never experienced normal community life, quality education or stable economic opportunities.
“Some children have known nothing but displacement since birth.
If we fail to act now, Nigeria will inherit a generation whose memories are defined by conflict instead of opportunity.”
Hamzat proposed that the Federal Government establish new planned communities rather than expand long term camp management.
According to PeacePro, the proposed communities should include affordable housing, schools, hospitals, electricity, potable water, markets, agricultural zones, industrial clusters, digital infrastructure and employment opportunities that allow displaced persons to become productive citizens instead of long term beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance.
PeacePro argued that while voluntary return to ancestral communities should remain an option where security and livelihoods have been restored, many conflict affected rural communities lacked basic infrastructure even before the insurgency.
“Returning people to communities without roads, schools, hospitals, electricity and sustainable economic opportunities may simply recreate the conditions that existed before displacement.
Nigeria should see this tragedy as an opportunity to build stronger, smarter and more economically viable communities.”
PeacePro said concentrating infrastructure and services in new communities would make public investment more sustainable while improving access to education, healthcare, employment and social services.
PeacePro further argued that continuing to feed and manage millions of displaced Nigerians indefinitely is neither economically sustainable nor socially productive.
“Humanitarian assistance saves lives, but it cannot become a permanent development policy. Every displaced farmer who returns to production strengthens food security. Every child who returns to school strengthens Nigeria’s human capital.
Every entrepreneur empowered strengthens the national economy.”
PeacePro maintained that the success of Nigeria’s war against terrorism should not only be measured by terrorists eliminated or territories reclaimed, but by the number of lives rebuilt and futures restored.
PeacePro therefore urged the Federal and state Governments to launch a 2Year National IDP Transformation Programme to gradually close long term camps through voluntary relocation into newly developed communities supported by housing, infrastructure, skills acquisition centers, education, healthcare and sustainable livelihoods.
“The greatest victory over terrorism will not be won on the battlefield alone. It will be won when displaced families regain their dignity, children reclaim their future and communities destroyed by violence become centres of prosperity. Nigeria must stop managing displacement and start rebuilding lives.
