The Federal Government has secured the agreement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to set up humanitarian response stations across Nigeria in a bid to bring timely succor to victims of disasters. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betta Edu, revealed this while discussing with State House correspondents in Dubai, UAE, after her interactions with officials of the Emirati government at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28).
She explained that the UAE Red Cresent, which is equivalent to the Red Cross, was now ready to build a more resilient humanitarian response system across the country.
“We have held a lot of interactions at different levels, of course, with the government of the UAE, that’s interacting with the Minister for Tolerance in the country who happens to be a brother to the President. We spoke extensively on how we can work together to pull millions of managers out of poverty.
“We have had interactions with the World Trade Organization DG, who is one of our own. We have had interactions with the president of the Islamic Development Bank and it’s centred on humanitarian response and other poverty alleviation programs that they can come in to support the country.
“And then finally, we had interaction with the Red Crescent, which is like the Red Cross here in Dubai and they are ready to come into Nigeria and support us to build a more resilient humanitarian response system across the country”.
Edu blamed climate change for the humanitarian crises and poverty in most parts of Nigeria, noting that it had driven people to insurgency and caused security problems in the country.
The minister said the role of her ministry at COP28 was to ensure their participation in climate change adaptation, to get support to provide jobs for people to lift them out of poverty, to key into the Paris Agreement, and see how they can align to ensure the prevention and mitigation of all those natural disasters that lead people into humanitarian crises."
Edu said: “Climate change is very critical and central to what the Ministry of humanitarian affairs and Poverty Alleviation does. Most of our humanitarian crises are a result of climate change and most of the poverty which we are tackling are a result of climate change.
“The flooding which you see every other time in Nigeria is a result of climate change. And, of course, there are issues around the drying up of the Lake Chad Basin, as well as the Sahel and the rest of it, which has led to people losing their livelihoods, over 40 million persons, who depend on this Lake Chad Basin, losing their livelihoods.
