Hon Sani Zoro represents Gagarawa/Gumel/Maigatari/ Suletankarkar Federal constituency of Jigawa State. He is also chairman, House Committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In this interview with Muhammad Zangina Kura, the lawmaker lamented the condition of IDP camps in Nigeria, and urged the need to co-opt Armed Forces in awarding contract for rebuilding North-eastNigerian Armed forces has succeeded in capturing Sambisa forest, a major territory under the control of Boko Haram insurgents, how could this success affect the plight of IDPs'First, I congratulate president Buhari and Nigerian Arm Forces for liberating Nigerias territories from Boko Haram insurgent. Indeed, we are all happy as no inch of our country is now under occupation or control of any miscreants.Beside this victory, we have to expect the influx of internally displaced person and other crisis that characterize post-war situations.The kind of people that will emerge from liberated territories are people that suffer from the squalor, poverty, diseases and malnutrition, particularly children and women who are the worst victims of the situation.They will came out with all signs of abject poverty because of the seven years persistence of the war. Also almost all of them lost their means of livelihood, they dont have single kobo to buy food, cloth or even cola-nut, they lack everything needed for basic survival.In view of this development there is need for federal government to come up with more contingent intervention for new internally displaced crisis that we are going to face following the opening of many places where thousand of people were trapped when Boko Haram conquered their area.My recommendation specificaly is, federal government should start doling out cash to those internally displaced in weekly or monthly basis as a kind of special intervention or social security to resuscitate them and prefer them to come back to the path of normal social and economic life.In the vehement policy of Mr President in which the house of assembly recently passed and approved N32bn for Niger Delta amnesty, which will be paying to militant, this is in addition to N20bn appropriations in 2017.So if militants who were trained can have the package of over N50bn, you can agree with me that those people who are emerging from war crisis deserve special package for recovery and attaining stabilization stage, as part of their journey to normal life.Reports from IDPs camps reveal that, with fall of Sambisa forest many people want to return to their communities, how do you assess this development'Yes, we noticed a desperation by IDPs to voluntarily leave the camps and return to their communities, this equally requires to be managed very while, because most of those communities were planted with hundreds of mines, so military must embarks on de-mining exercise to facilitate safe returns to their communities.There is also the need to escalate reconstruction exercise particularly on shelter roads, we need hospitals especially now that we are in Harmattan period.Nigerian Arm forces has demonstrated high level of sacrifice and professionalism in fighting the insurgent, in what ways can you suggest for government to came up with policies that would boost their morale in depending the country'This is a huge opportunity for the members of Nigerian Armed Forces to develop their capacity. I therefore call on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider giving Nigerian Arm Forces 80 percent contract for rebuilding North-east.The arm forces have all the expertise to handle the contract for the rebuilding of North-east and can deliver good jobs by the virtue of their discipline, professionalism and nationalism.More so, the Nigerian Association of Engineers has over the years proven the arm forces capability at handling engineering works, such as road reconstruction, renovation of roads, bridges, schools, police stations, water pipeline, electrification wearing in the North-east.Giving the armed force such contracts would help the institution to recruit more personel and also assist them to utilize their human resources to full capacity. The kind of ultimate sacrifice and patriotism the Nigerian Armed Forces exhibited in fighting the insurgents, I am sure if given chance to handle contract they could do it without any hindrance.There is nothing wrong for armed forces to participate in economic and social development activities. Such practice is commonly done in countries like America, Egypt, Russia and many more across the world.If you go to Egypt, their armed forces own hotels, farms, supermarkets and many other commercial activities.So this is an opportunity for President Buhari to use this contract of rebuilding North-east to build the capacity of Nigerian Armed Forces as well as an incentive to boost their morale as they succeeded in defeating insurgents to the grave.I also commended the vision of chief of Armed Forces, L.T Gen. Tukur Buratai, for sending his men to a country like Argentina to learn farming activities, Animal husbandry and various entrepreneur skill acquisitions programs to prepare them to participate in national building during peace time. There is nothing wrong for Nigerian military to embark on farming animal husbandry to feed themselves and the nation, equally to own hotel and other legitimate business activities. They are skilled, endowment, education has to be channeled to national development In peace time.Are you satisfied with 2017 budgetary allocation for IDPs'The issues of IDPs is always under narrated, but from what we have seen in Mr Presidents proposal, there is an increase in the allocation. However we will sit down and examine the allocation for the humanitarian sector to see what it can do. But if you are talking about the trillions of Naira required to rebuild North-east for the short and long term plan as analyzed by international partners agencies and the chairman presidential committee for North-east, General Theophilous Danjuma, the allocation of N45bn can be said, is grossly inadequate.However with efforts of the state governments, the pledges by individuals and donor agencies in humanitarian clusters who promised to donate massively and channel it to United Nations agencies and government established bodies towards humanitarian rehabilitation, we will keep our eyes open and examine this from time to time to ensure probity and judicial utilization of all the contributed resource.There is need also for federal government to come up with effective mechanisms to track and apprehend any one found diverting or misusing what was allocated to IDPs particularly.
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