‘Over 6.7m Nigerians displaced in last 4 years’

The Federal Government has disclosed that 6.7 million Nigerians have been displaced since 2022 as a result of climate change, banditry, Boko Haram, and farmers/herders’ clashes. Tijjani Aliyu Ahmed, the Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), disclosed this while speaking at the special event on climate-induced mobility, […]

The Federal Government has disclosed that 6.7 million Nigerians have been displaced since 2022 as a result of climate change, banditry, Boko Haram, and farmers/herders’ clashes.

Tijjani Aliyu Ahmed, the Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), disclosed this while speaking at the special event on climate-induced mobility, convened at the instance of the Senior Officials’ Meeting of the Rabat Process, which marks Nigeria’s final official meeting under her Chairmanship, on Wednesday in Abuja.

“Today, I want to inform you that within the range of 2022 to date, we have more than 6.7 million Nigerians who have been displaced.

“Not only the IDPs, but we also have Nigerians who have been displaced (outside the country) as a result of this climate change.

“We have not less than 140,000 Nigerians living in Cameroon being displaced as a result of climate change. We also have some of them in Niger and Chad,” he said.

Ahmed, however, said the Federal Government is making efforts to ensure that most of those who have left this country and become refugees elsewhere are returned to the country.

“As it is today, Nigeria, being led by the agency, is repatriating 3,500 individuals from Cameroon,” he said, adding that they were already on their way back.

Speaking earlier, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, said Nigeria has experienced some of the most severe climate shocks in recent history.

He said, “In 2022, unprecedented flooding affected over 4.4 million people nationwide, with approximately 2.4 million persons displaced across more than thirty states.

“Entire communities were submerged, several homes were destroyed or severely damaged, millions of lives and properties lost, including hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland inundated, with lasting consequences for food security and livelihoods.

“These floods were not an isolated event, as recurrent flooding has continued to displace populations in different parts of the country, disrupting livelihoods, overwhelming host communities, and placing sustained pressure on already fragile social infrastructure.”

He stressed that long-term environmental degradation in the Lake Chad Basin had undermined traditional fishing, farming, and pastoral livelihoods that sustained communities for generations.

He, however, said the Federal Government had launched the Global Flood Disaster Management Project (GFDMP), a multi-year initiative aimed at enhancing early warning systems, strengthening flood-resilient infrastructure, and improving disaster coordination and community engagement across Nigeria, to counter the effects of climate change.

“Equally, my government has developed the Climate-Resilient Livelihoods Empowerment Programme for Displaced Populations; CLEP4DPS – a transformative 10-year, US$250 million initiative built on one revolutionary premise: economic empowerment is climate adaptation,” he said.