Nigeria’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Betta Edu, has demanded inter-ministerial collaboration to tackle illegal migration and human trafficking, saying Nigeria has too many illegal borders.
Edu made the call when she paid a courtesy visit to Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in his office in Abuja.
According to the Minister, the call became urgent to tackle the root causes of poverty and humanitarian crises, which she believed to be insecurity, illegal migration and human trafficking.
She assured the Interior Minister that the National Social Register would be expanded to factor in families and widows of ex-servicemen in the paramilitary organization.
She said: “The inmates of the Nigeria Correctional Services will also be captured to benefit from the skills acquisition programmes of my ministry. For us to achieve the desired result, we must ensure effective and sustainable inter-ministerial collaborations.
“We need intelligence from you. We just got the approval for officers from NAPTIP to be present at the different ports. We need you to know the importance of our collaboration with you on the border. We have to find ways to step up our intelligence in Nigeria. We have too many illegal borders.”
While talking further, Edu said the partnership became necessary to accomplish President Bola Tinubu’s plans to reduce poverty and humanitarian crises in the country.
She said: “We are here for serious business, and for us to succeed, we must work as a team through inter-sectoral and ministerial collaboration to achieve success. My new responsibilities cover a greater population of vulnerable Nigerians to provide them with humanitarian services and alleviate their poverty in line with President Tinubu’s agenda.
“We need your support, and the heads of security agencies here will help us to work with our team to gather intelligence on how people are moving in and out of our country. There are issues of human trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation, amongst other things, which lead to humanitarian crises. We cannot continue to allow this trend to go unattended. It’s not acceptable. We need your support.”
In his reaction, Tunji-Ojo commended the courage and commitment of the Minister for pushing the “renewed hope agenda.”
He said the inter-ministerial committee headed by the two permanent secretaries in the two ministries will collaborate to strengthen the agenda’s focus. He also commended the humanitarian minister’s offer to train the inmates of the correctional services in skills acquisition.
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