ELECTION
IN CONCLUSION OF MY VISIT TO SOKOTO STATE
IN CONCLUSION OF MY VISIT TO SOKOTO STATE
Yesterday, 29th September, in continuation of my two-day visit to Sokoto State, I had extensive consultations and discussions with various groups from across the state on insecurity, out-of-school children, endemic poverty, youth unemployment, drug prevalence, and other issues affecting our people in this part of the country.
My final engagement was a visit to the Ramin Kura IDP Camp in Sokoto North LGA, within the Sokoto metropolis, which is currently housing over 1,000 internally displaced persons. During my tour of the facility, I found it particularly distressing to see Nigerians crammed into makeshift shelters and thatched rooms, with some rooms housing as many as 10 persons.
The camp also lacks adequate toilet facilities, a primary healthcare centre, and even a basic school for the children. I have always insisted that as long as even one Nigerian lives in an IDP camp, we are all internally displaced.
Therefore, the government of today must work assiduously to make the temporary accommodation for our dear citizens living in these camps comfortable, while ensuring that all the underlying security issues that created these conditions in the first place are resolved, to enable them to return to their ancestral homes.
This is my 12th visit to IDP camps across Nigeria, and, just like in the others, I am committing to continuously supporting these Nigerians for as long as it takes.
This is why I continue to say that the President’s and political office holders’ holidays must be within Nigeria, so that they can see first-hand the difficulties faced by these fellow Nigerians, whose vulnerability has been worsened by the failure of government to prioritise critical areas of development.
Let me seize this opportunity to again call on the government and the relevant agencies to immediately look into the plight of these citizens and address their pressing needs. A New Nigeria is POssible and will be OK.
