The plights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria have again come into the limelight as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a grant of $801,000 to the American University of Nigeria, Yola.
The fund is aimed to support the activities of the university to improve access to education services for internally displaced people in Jimeta and Yola of Adamawa state.
The grant will help in resettling the IDPs with emphasis on mobile education and information communication technology.
When asked if USAID’s grant to the AUN, a privately owned university, is an indictment of the poor standard of public universities in Nigeria, the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, said he is not disappointed noting that the university is the closet to the IDPs.
“Do not forget that the location of Yola is in the northeast and they (AUN) are the closet to the people and they know what the problems are. That is why they are using the university.”
Prof Okojie who lauded the initiative opined that the prospects are exciting.
“With over 10 million children out of school this is the way to addressing that. Do not forget we have the mass literacy programmes in some specialized agencies of government. Osun state also started something on this not too long ago. The federal government has promised that education will be free and I am sure this is one of their cardinal programmes,” Okojie said.
Prof. Okojie also advocated that education should be free and compulsory for children to age 18.
“Education should be made free and compulsory for children up till the age of 18. At that age they can read and write and make informed decisions. They can decide what they want to do.”
The executive secretary then promised to ensure that the federal government is well informed on the laudable initiatives that can help the Nigerian education system.
President of the AUN, Dr Margee Ensign, relating her experience so far in serving the“underserved” said that about 400,000 displaced people came to Yola making the population of the state capital to swell. Yola, the capital of Adamawa state, used to have a population of about 400,000 people prior to the arrival of IDPs.
“As most of you will know that about 400,000 IDPs were in Yola, although the number has now dropped because some of them have started leaving. The programme that we designed with the USAID allows us to expand the initiatives that we have started by using technology means through mobile and e-learning to reach out to these children who cannot read.
“The university and our partner, Adamawa Peace Initiative, fed 270,000 people last year and we are proud of that effort and glad that the people (IDPs) are able to go home as education continues,” she said.
USAID’s and AUN grant signing to help the IDPs is seen as a welcome development especially as some displaced people are beginning to return back to the northeast. Many stakeholders believe that with the right education in place, the scourge of Boko Haram that has killed many people in the northeast would not have surfaced.
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