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60m People Displaced Globally -UN …As IDPs, Refugees Hit 2.2m In Nigeria
The UN Refugees Chief, Antonio Guterres, said yesterday in Geneva that the world has entered a phase in which multiple crises have caused refugee numbers to soar to unprecedented levels.
Guterres said in his annual report that it was unfortunate that the international community could not work together to stop wars, build and preserve peace.
He said that another post-World-War-II record was set in 2014, as 59.5 million people were counted as refugees or as internally displaced people.
He said Syrians, Afghans and Somalians make up the biggest groups.
Guterres said the world was witnessing a paradigm change, an unchecked slide into an era in which the scale of forced displacement and the response required was now clearly dwarfing anything seen before.
“The equivalent of the population of metropolitan London, 13.9 million, became newly displaced as they fled wars, persecution or oppression during 2014.
The UN refugee agency chief said the figure was four times higher than what was recorded in 2010.
Guterres said that 15 conflicts had broken out or restarted in the past few years, including in the Central African Republic, Iraq, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
“In addition to people who fled in previous years and haven’t returned home, there were 38 million internally displaced people, nearly 20 million refugees and 1.8 million asylum seekers last year.
“More than half of the refugees are children,’’ he said.
Guterres said Turkey was the biggest refugee host country, as a result of the conflict in neighbouring Syria, followed by Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran and Ethiopia.
He said flowing ‘unprecedented’ mass displacement, there was urgent need for an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.
Similarly, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMIDP) has said that Nigeria is currently catering for two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The National Commissioner for the commission, Hajia Hadiza Kangiwa, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Lagos yesterday.
Kangiwa said that government was also catering for 2,000 refugees, who were foreign nationals, noting that the people were kept in Churches, public schools and other makeshift buildings.
“Government provides food items, toiletries, cloths and insecticide to cater for their welfare under temporary arrangement,’’ she said.
She said that caring for that huge number of IDPs, posed serious challenge for the government.
According to her, the Federal Government is not favourably disposed to setting up camps for the displaced persons.
She, however, noted that having camp was imperative to taking good care of those displaced on account of insecurity and disaster in parts of the country.
“The challenge is the spontaneous nature in displacement because without warning, you find groups of people displaced.
“IDPs are citizens of Nigeria but displaced from their ancestral home due to insecurity and natural disasters.
“They have freedom of movement and right to work, and that is why government does not like to keep them perpetually on camps.
“So, it is like a struggle with humanitarian work and development, human right and constitutional issues,’’ she said.
Kangiwa expressed concern about security implication of keeping the IDPs and refugees, which further explained why government opposed setting up camps.
She said that security needed to be improved, especially for the IDPs, who could be vulnerable to dangers, having been displaced from their natural homes.
“There are cases of child abuse, child trafficking and militarisation of young people and that is a big security issue,’’ the commissioner said.
Kangiwa listed inadequate funding as a major challenge militating against the operations of the commission.
“Because of the nature of displacement, we are not able to prepare budget accurately and where you make budget, fund requested is not released in accordance to the needs of the commission.
“Last year, the commission got N70 million for protection, care and maintenance of over one million IDPs.
“In this year’s budget, only N32 million was approved while the number of IDPs doubled to two million.
“We are constantly struggling to get corporate sponsors to augment funds from government,’’ the commissioner said.
She explained that the NCRMIDP had been advocating for corporate assistance to resettle IDP families.
The resettlement, according to her, includes six months’ house rent, one year health insurance and one off-cash hand-out as empowerment assistant to the family.
“With N200,000, a family of five children can be resettled and they do not have to remain in the camp any further.
“If we have the fund, we will be able to resettle half of those we have in the camp now,’’ Kangiwa said.
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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