Kingsley Ahanonu: In remembrance of Internally Displaced Persons

The underlying penchant of man for greed and domination together has continued to question his sense of duty to the role of sustaining the welfare of his environment. His inconsistencies in both social and topographical commitments have stripped him of the conviviality that defines his existence; instead strewing around him heavy burdens of diverse adverse effects.

Nowadays as has been likened to many of man’s histories, we hear of communal, civil, regional wars; of more recent, which however seems on the increase is the conflicts spurred by ideological and religious extremisms. People are also oppressed on prejudicial ground as result of dissensions in creed, affiliation and lifestyle. What we cannot undermine also is the adverse effects of climate changes observed in the consequences of environmental degradations.

The human world continuously makes the suggestion of an enclave heavily over-stretched by imposing pressures and wears that are disorientating it and plunging it into further shambles; obviously orchestrated by human insensitiveness.

Thus we have it that apart from being in self-inflicted conflicts withies humanly community, man is in overt conflict with his environment. At each show, though consciously overlooked these human inconsistencies always come with ghastly boomeranging feels that leave much to be desired.

So overwhelmed by the stress and inconveniences of man’s undoing that have thumped both the will and endurance, many have made the often hard and inconceivable decision of fleeing and moving away from what had befallen them.

Wars, famine, drought, discrimination, political killings; these nefarious emergencies have forced many to flee for the safety of what remains of their lives. They find themselves endurably living in inconveniences and discomforts they obviously would not wish but which they neither have choice on.

We call them displaced people, some refer to them as fleeing migrants, refugees and others so have them by different nomenclatures deemed suitable. But whatever names they are called the fact that underlie is that there are people running to shield themselves from problems brought on by their fellows and in often dismissed cases, themselves.

The recent figure released by the UN agency on refugee matters, UNHCR, puts the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) at a whooping 60million. 60 million people around the world do not have what they would call their homes. 60 million people of the world are homeless, in swimming uncertainties and ravaged by despair; they are refugees!

Just last year alone, the number of displaced individuals fleeing from natural and human disasters and persecution hit a heart-raking 13.9million. In the whole, the crisis situation continues to over-blow with the present figure of refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced hitting over 60 million!

Pathetically, each day, the figure keeps soaring even as the international community is left in the dilemma of finding panacea to existing and cushioning simmering conflicts. From Syria to Iraq and Yemen to Somalia. The story continues from South Sudan to Sri Lanka and down to Nigeria.

In Nigeria, the situation is clear and obviously repugnant. The scourge of terrorism amidst the muffled jaggedness of other political and socio-cultural crises has pushed forth our vulnerability more and more to the liability of the implosion of displacement and exposed how helplessly we are in the global plague.

The report released by the National Commission on Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced People (NCRMIDPs) as of Thursday, 18th June 2015 puts the number of people displaced in Nigeria at over 2.2million.

In the widespread spree is its widening dimensions; the displacement and flight find bases in diverse roots: from terror attacks posed by the religious extremists in Boko Haram and Islamic States to flooding and famine, the least is endless as the widening surge.

This is alarming and more so that it has remained a consistent predicament in the face of these and more of world’s burgeoning conflicts. However truthful, it is more an internal dilemma, as it is global puzzle. The more reason we need to be personally involved in the efforts to find solution to the staring problem. The responsibility is on us to help avert future plunge to crisis that necessitate the problem and help in bringing succor to the unfortunate victims.

It is for the very attention stirred by this reality that the United Nation set out the 20th day of June of every year to recognize these people and the traumas and other conditional effects they are faced with. Every 20th of June is thus specifically marked in the international community as World Refugees Day.

So in effect and more profoundly, in the ink of what this day presents in memorial, I reach out prominently to all refugees around the globe, in thoughts and prayers.


Kingsley Ahanonu writes from Owerri.

 Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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