President Muhammadu Buhari says
there are at least a million displaced Nigerian children who do not know their
parents and where they are from.
Buhari also requested for the
assistance of the United Nations in rehabilitating the devastated internally
displaced persons (IDPs) camps across the country.
The president spoke while hosting
Maria Garces, president of the 73rd session of the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA), at the state house, Abuja, on Tuesday.
The president noted that the
damage to the infrastructure, particularly in the northeast, has been
“horrendous”, saying every help would be invaluable.
“The assistance of the United
Nations and the international community will be invaluable in reversing the
devastation visited on Nigeria by the Boko Haram insurgency,” Buhari said.
“The condition of internally
displaced persons ((IDPs) in the country is pathetic. We have at least a
million children who neither know their parents nor where they come from.
“Bridges have been blown up,
schools, hospitals, churches, mosques, and other buildings have been destroyed.
All these will be rehabilitated, and every form of international help is
welcome.”
On the recharge of Lake Chad
through inter-basin water transfer from Congo River, the president said climate
change was quite real to the region, noting that no fewer than 30 million
people are negatively affected by the shrinking lake, with at least half of
them being Nigerians.
He stressed the role the
international community needed to play in the endeavour, “since recharging the
lake was beyond the financial power of the affected countries”.
Responding, Garces commended
Nigeria for being a key part of the UN system, saying the country was well
respected in the global body.
“Nigeria is a major troops’
contributor to peacekeeping operations, and a major part of the human rights
architecture,” she said.
She commended Buhari’s leadership
of the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS), and of the Lake
Chad Basin commission, pledging to call the attention of the international
community to the “hurting effects” of the Lake Chad problem, and other issues
raised by the president.
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