……………AS IMAAN SULAIMAN – IBRAHIM ADDRESSES UN FORUM

By

Oluwaseun Trust

The Federal Government of Nigeria has reiterate that achieving the objectives of the Global Compact on Migration lies in the coordinated, collaborative, and concerted effort of all involved at the global, regional, and national levels.

To this end, it advocates for sustainable and durable solution-driven rehabilitation, reintegration and resettlement to be able to address the mirage of migration issues across the world.

The Hon. Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim stated this during the General Debate at the First International Migration Review Forum.

It would be recalled that stakeholders and United Nations member states had gathered at the UN Headquarters in New York from 17th – 20th May 2022 to deliberate on progress made at the local, national regional and global levels in implementing the Global Compact for Safe Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) in the framework of the United Nations through a State –led approach and with the participation of all relevant partners.

The Nigeria statement was delivered on behalf of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouq by the NCFRMI boss.

Imaan Sulaiman –Ibrahim stated that the forum presents an opportunity for a national stocktaking of on Nigeria’s implementation of the Global Compact on Migration (GCM).

“Through the national voluntary review exercise, we were able to engage in a critical self-reflective x-ray of our national implementation process that underscored our strength, challenges, lessons learned and proffered suggestions for the way forward for better implementation”.

The Hon. Federal Commissioner told the international participants that “Nigeria’s greatest strength and strategy in the implementation of the GCM come from collaboration and cooperation. Adopting the framework of the whole-of-government and the whole-of-society approach, we have continued to build collaborations and provide for inclusive and active engagement of all relevant stakeholders including state and non-state actors from all levels as well as regional and international partners in designing and implementing migration-relevant projects and encouraging multi-stakeholder dialogues.

“Our major challenges include the inaccessibility of migration data, funding, and the Covid-19 pandemic which delayed the implementation of some of the GCM activities especially during the lockdown period.

“As we assemble here for the first international migration review forum, with the shared purpose of cooperating to ensure that migration is safe, orderly, and regular, may I invite us all collectively, in our various capacities, to use this opportunity to look at the global report card on the GCM implementation in order to self-assess ourselves and recognize where to make amends and work better together. We believe there must be an established list of key performance indicators for the way forward on migration issues, which should be closely monitored as pointers to track the progress.

“Nigeria, as a country of origin, transit, and destination, is a major participant in the global migration dynamics and shares in the abounding gains and numerous challenges of migration. Our perception and response to migration have evolved from a problem to be solved, a challenging reality to be managed, to a potential to be harnessed. Our efforts in migration management achieved a major stride in 2015 with the adoption of the National Migration Policy.

“I would like to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and we will continue to strengthen institutional cooperation on national migration management. To ensure this, Nigeria pledges these six -point actions:

·        The establishment of an inter-governmental and sustained child-focused information management system to support evidence-based case management that is inclusive of migrant children;

·        The strengthening of youth empowerment opportunities for reintegration of child migrants through initiatives like ‘Generation Unlimited’;

·        Strengthening the mechanism on registration of birth and providing birth certificate for children born in various camps, settlements and host communities, effectively tackling the problem of stateless in children.

·        Ensuring adequate budgetary allocation for Ministries, Departments and Agencies working on GCM programmes;

·        Mainstreaming GCM objectives into the upcoming National Migration policy review, other relevant policies, and strategies of the government, and;

·        To continue to deploy the all-inclusive multi-stakeholders’ approach in all GCM implementation as evident in the IMRF preparation and the whole-of-government and whole-of-society composition of its delegation to the IMR” She pointed out.  

The Forum was attended by Heads of other Government Agencies in Nigeria including development partners.