Children’s Government wants children removed from IDP camps

The Nigerian Children’s Government on Wednesday called for the removal of children from all Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in the country to accelerate their return to school.

Miss Hauwa Musa, the President of the Nigerian Children Government, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Maiduguri.

She said that the Children Government has dedicated this year’s Children’s Day to fight the course of children living in IDP camps across the North-East region.

“The North-East is at ease today but it does not have peace. Until every child returns to school and home, until every youth is empowered and given a meaningful direction to live, until every woman, widow or the elderly have a home and a source of livelihood,” Musa said.
She said that the Boko Haram insurgency had created enormous problems, especially regarding hundreds of IDPs which must be tackled head on.

“We the children will not wait, we will join this battle today, if we must have a tomorrow to become leaders and this is our proposed strategy.
“That we will launch a children led appeal fund of N20 billion here in Maiduguri to raise money for the welfare of millions of children affected by the insurgency,” Musa said.
She added that they have dedicated the forthcoming World Children’s Day to the IDPs, with a mandate to remove every child from the camp to school and home within the next one year.

“The public schools in the North-East have the capacity to absorb all the IDP children, so, what are we waiting for?

“If we want a lasting and sustainable peace, then all IDPs must undergo a psycho-social treatment before returning home, now that we have almost all of them in one place.

“It must be compulsory for all the children and youths, if not, we will make the present challenge a tea party,” she said.

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Musa lauded the Nigerian Armed Forces for their gallantry in the fight against the insurgency.

“It is only those who are in the front line of the war against insurgency that can truly understand what the challenges and the consequences are.

“What we see in the mass media is only about 10 per cent of what happens on the ground, nobody can understand the responsibilities on the President when it comes to the fight against insurgency,” Musa said.

“Nobody can appreciate the work that the Armed Forces and security agencies are doing; nobody can understand the burden that is on the Borno State Governor.

“Nobody can understand the challenges that the front line NGOs are facing everyday when they are confronted with the realities of the crisis on ground,” she said.