Mohamed Malick Fall is the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria. In this exclusive interview, he speaks on the need for a collective response to humanitarian crises in Nigeria, obstacles to humanitarian interventions, and the work of the United Nations, among others. UN OCHA Nigeria’s Head of Public Information, Ann Weru, and Public Information Officer, Dr. Chike Walter Duru, were there.

Excerpts:
Types of humanitarian issues in Nigeria
Different types of crises exist in Nigeria; some are linked to conflict and insecurity; there are those that are triggered by insurgency in the north-east, some are linked to intercommunal violence, herders/farmers clashes, abductions, kidnapping, banditry, prevalent in many parts of the country.
In addition, Nigeria has a certain level of climate vulnerability. Sometimes, drought; sometimes, floods; sometimes heat wave, that impact the wellbeing of people and sometimes trigger the movement of people, loss of property or loss of livelihood and they exacerbate the hardship that the people are facing.

How the UN is responding to the challenges
The UN has a two-fold response. One is the humanitarian response, which, to me, is guided by the principle of saving lives and reducing vulnerabilities; helping people, not only to get back on their feet, but also to have hope that they can have a better future.

The second component is the one that tackles the root causes of these crises.

Most of those root causes are linked to deficits of development, lack of basic services, lack of livelihoods, lack of skills for young people and lack of access to employment.

Those require much deeper action, which is building, not only on UN humanitarian intervention, but also on development-related activities, which will be looking at short, mid and long-term projects for the development of those people.

Obstacles to humanitarian interventions in Nigeria
We have several of them.

The biggest one is access, and sometimes, access is hampered by insecurity. There are many parts of the country without free and safe access because of the high level of insecurity that is still prevailing.

This is valid for the north-east, where, despite all the efforts to push against the insurgency, you still see attacks like the recent ones in Konduga and Gwoza, which are sad reminders that it is not yet over.

You have also insecurity prevailing in many other parts of the country.

Sometimes, access to the people in need is also difficult.

Funding gaps are also an issue, because, as you know, the world is overstretched by humanitarian challenges. For instance, we have gone past half of the year, but this year’s Nigerian Humanitarian Response Plan is funded below 50 per cent.

We launched in May 2024, a Lean Season Plan, which targeted to address the most urgent needs of people affected by food insecurity and malnutrition, but we are in the peak of the lean season, and we have not even reached 30 per cent of the funding we need.

If you look at humanitarian funding year by year, you will see that it is declining. The level of response from the donor community is getting lower because of the competing developments across the world. The wars in Gaza, Sudan, and other regions have completely changed the funding landscape for humanitarian response.

The challenge of funding
There is a cost of doing nothing. People always look at things from the point of the cost of doing something.

Let me take one example. In the Lean Season Plan, we are looking at addressing severe food insecurity and malnutrition. Today, look at the number of children that are malnourished.

The survival of hundreds of thousands of severely acutely malnourished children and those at risk depends on urgent interventions.

In the Lean Season Plan, there is a projection of 230,000 children at risk of severe acute malnutrition during the lean season in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, alone.

Their survival depends on the steps taken against the challenge.
The cost of inaction is that life is on the line. Children that survive acute malnutrition, from the fragile health conditions they have, may also face growth and development challenges throughout their lives. The cost of inaction is very expensive.

Way forward
I see several solutions around these challenges.
For funding, more innovative funding solutions are required. We must no longer rely on western countries as traditional donors.

A country like Nigeria is not poor. It is among the three biggest economies in Africa. It is increasingly urgent for the Government to allocate its own resources to the humanitarian response.

We also need to be more creative and see how we can make our humanitarian operations more efficient and more effective. There are many directions that need to be explored.

International Laws
Wherever you see conflict and war, it means that there are parties that do not believe in dialogue and in peaceful settlement of disputes.

For instance, the insurgents believe in extreme violence and terrorist actions. This is not peculiar to Nigeria.

In the world, there are many wars taking place. Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, and these are coming on top of previous crises. You have Somalia and Syria.

The notion that any difference should be settled through arms and through guns amounts to pushing back on the principles of international laws. Many of the parties to conflict do not respect nor respond to the call of international humanitarian law.

How the UN is supporting displaced people and the most vulnerable
Whenever you see a crisis, those that pay the highest prices are the most vulnerable – the women, children, older persons, people living with disabilities, and that is why we prioritise them in our interventions. There are provisions in our interventions that prioritize the protection of children. There are also provisions that specially protect women from grave violations of their rights and from sexual violence. The rights of people living with disabilities are also protected.

For me, the humanitarian space is one of the few spaces where humanity has its expression. It is a place where you see actors daily, risking their lives to go and save lives, reduce vulnerability, protect and help people get back on their feet.

It is also a space where you see host communities that are lacking in everything sharing the little, they have with people who are suffering or displaced. It is a place where you see Government and non-state actors getting together, to reduce vulnerability and save the lives of people.

The work of humanitarians saving lives etc. has just one name – humanity prevailing.
Message for stakeholders
What we need to reduce the humanitarian needs in the world is for the people to go back to the principle of humanity.
If we act on preventing conflict, stopping conflicts, we will take away a huge number of people in humanitarian need.

At the same time, humanitarian needs are not only triggered by conflict; unfortunately, the way we treat our planet; the way we treat our ecosystems, the way we respond to the climate crisis that we are facing are also important issues.
We also have increased poverty and deeper inequalities.

All of these are among the factors that trigger human suffering.
We need to address conflict, increased poverty, the climate crisis, and inequalities. If world leaders continue to push to address these issues and more, we will see a better world.

Members of the public should support humanitarian action. They should understand that it is not about humanitarian organisations and workers alone. It is about the entire society.

The call here is the expression of humanity. It is a call to every human being. It takes mobilization, commitment, awareness for every one of us to be part of that humanity.

Mr. President! The Goldilocks Solution, Please, by Hassan Gimba

Yes, we are at war! This much we said last week. But the curious and sad thing is that Nigerians don’t seem to know or don’t want to know, and our leaders don’t seem to care. Our security agencies, whose activities are akin to the movement of wavelengths, continue with the aura of “everything is all right” when the trajectory is low, only to chase after those fighting Nigeria when the trajectory shoots up.

When they are at their lowest, it is the law-abiding citizen who gets the short end of their “might.” The real bad guys hold sway in the ungoverned spaces in the bushes and forests of our nation, living lives akin to the Indian Dakus—kidnapping at will and imposing taxes on their victims.

While hungry Nigerian citizens march on the streets, asking the government to allow them to breathe, they are being harassed. Those who have turned our bushes into billion-naira crime dens are being cajoled for a tête-à-tête.

The question confused and frustrated citizens are asking is, “How did we get here?” Yes, how did we get here? “Here” is like a station where going back looks impossible because the bridge is broken and moving on appears daunting because of the overgrowth of brush, bushes, thorns, and wild animals blocking the only path ahead. There is no promise of comfort in staying put, for a mighty flood that would sweep all to Hades is approaching fast.

Our founding fathers, who played a crucial role in birthing our nationhood in 1960, surely experienced great joy on that momentous first day of October when Naval Rating Salaudeen Akano, under the command of Commander Onwurah Zanyanuno Chiazor, lowered the Union Jack, which had served as Nigeria’s flag since 1914, at midnight and raised the Green-White-Green flag instead.

Had there been super intelligence that could “browse” their brains, perhaps in their minds, Nigeria was going to become an El Dorado, the utopian land of milk and honey where there would be abundant peace, harmony, equality, and uninterrupted happiness, in line with the prayer in the second stanza of our National Anthem, “Oh God of creation, direct our noble course, guide our leaders right, help our youth the truth to know…” with the anthem continuing elsewhere with “Help us build a nation where no man is oppressed…”

Now that the utopian country of their dream is our dystopian reality, what is the way out?

Some think the only way is the “hard way,” i.e., through a revolution. Others believe the best way is to change the governance system. This perhaps informs why some are proposing a return to the parliamentary system. Yet others opine that “restructuring” is the right route.

The thing is, those advocating for a revolution are romanticizing the word. They fantasize about the theoretical adventures of great revolutionaries like Karl Marx, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Thomas Sankara, and others who uplifted the thinking of their people, emancipated them from mental slavery, and changed the direction of their countries positively.

Revolution, the type that some find glamorous, is out of the question in Nigeria, because all those mouthing it are not ready, nor are they capable of going through the mill. No man whose thinking is comfort in life can be a revolutionary. Paper revolutionary, yes; active one? No! All those making noise about it are exploiting the gullible, who they view as cannon fodder rather than partners.

The parliamentary system or any other political system, not to mention restructuring, is not the solution as long as people with the current mentality are the drivers.

In our situation, the Goldilocks Solution is the way to go because our situation is desperate, and desperate situations demand desperate remedial actions. The Goldilocks Solution is a moderate manner of doing everything — “just right” — not too extreme, not too lacking, but perfectly balanced.

The term came from the classic children’s story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In that fairy tale, Goldilocks sampled the bears’ porridge, chairs, and beds, rejecting those that were too hot or too cold, too hard or too soft, settling for those she found were “just right.”

Treasury looters alone are too plentiful. If we had hundreds in the 70s and 80s, now we have millions who have soiled their fingers. Some stole in hundreds of thousands, some in millions and tens and hundreds of millions, and others in tens and hundreds of billions. Has the thievery reached the threshold of trillions? But how do you beat that? How do you investigate and prosecute this general crime that almost all Nigerians in privileged positions cannot, in all honesty, claim innocence of?

The way we are, there must be something akin to a general amnesty for ALL criminals because we are starting afresh. This has to be so because different crimes, from the littlest, like picking our pockets, to pocketing our foreign reserves, to murders in cold blood by bandits and murders by files (where budgets for roads, hospitals, and poverty alleviation have disappeared), causing deaths on highways and in hospitals, budget paddings and many more are just too numerous for our security, judicial, and penitentiary sectors to handle. Those sectors, anyway, also have their fair share of criminals.

Just last week, a bandit who sometimes appears on TikTok and even asks citizens to drop their account details for monetary gifts taxed a community ₦30 million because a military commander killed his cows! Despite the commander’s “apology” and promise not to commit such a “sin” against the criminal again, the bandit said the people must pay because the soldier was protecting them.

The governor of Katsina, Dikko Umar Radda, exposed a traditional ruler who accepted ₦700,000 from bandits to facilitate the killing of his people and a security officer who betrayed his colleagues, leading to their deaths at the hands of bandits, and now he has fled to join his real colleagues in the bush.

Let every man who has money stashed anywhere in the world bring it back and invest. No questions asked. Those yahoo boys? Allow what they have pinched as “repatriated funds” and let them be. If those who dipped their hands in the treasury bring out the loot, invest, employ, pay taxes, and sin no more, let their actions be overlooked.

All bandits, insurgents, and terrorists should return to towns and utilize their loot in nation-building. Then, the government should set a time when crimes will start to be punished promptly. From then on, we should not allow any crime, no matter how small or big, committed by whoever, to be left unpunished. It is those crimes that, like drips of water allowed over time, have become the flood threatening to drown us.

We should consider the Goldilocks approach because it is getting too late, and it may be the only way for those responsible to regain control again.

Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Neptune Prime.

… Five years after the Ita-Faji school building collapse…..

Five years ago Lagos Island East witnessed a significant increase in building collapse that resulted in loss of lives and livelihoods, as well as the displacement of families.

One of such incidents was the building collapse at Ita-Faji area of lagos where pupils lost their lives, many were injured and rescued as the building housing Ohen Primary School collapsed in Ita-Faji Lagos Island.

However, the pain of years back has been replaced with joy as the government of Lagos Island East commissions a newly constructed Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School on the tragic site to commemorate the deceased pupils.

“Reflecting on the tragic incident at Ita-Faji school building collapse. I am reminded of the profound loss that our community has endured.

The pain of losing our children, our future, is something we will never forget. As a leader and member of this community I carry the weight of that sorrow with me.” These were the words of the Executive Chairman Hon Muibi Alade Folawiyo at the commissioning of the second Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School Ita-Faji.

Folawiyo noted that in a bid to fulfill the promise made during the tragic incident that we will rebuild a new school which will stand as a symbol of our resilience and commitment, today that promise has turned to reality.

The school will not just be a structure, but a beacon of hope where every child can grow, thrive and dream safely.

Some of the children who were rescued from the debris of the school collapse in 2019 were given scholarship and have graduated from Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School Tapa. Other rescued pupils are still in the school with full scholarship.

Over the years, the Local Council established Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School Tapa street to ensure our children get quality education.

With the increase in the population of pupils in the school, there was a need for a second Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School and that school will commence operation in the new academic session.

As part of our efforts the school shall be tuition free just like the first Lagos Island East Montessori Nursery and Primary School Tapa, learning aids and materials such as school bags, Uniforms, Sandals, Socks and Lunch Boxes shall be given to the pupils for free through the “My Kids and I” Initiatives. An initiative to conquer the scourge of out of school children in the community.

Hon. Babajide Damazio, APC Apex leader applauded the council Boss for his commitment and passion towards the community and education of our children.

He urged parents and guardians of the pupils to ensure they are punctual and committed towards their education as the government is doing its part in making education accessible to all.

He prayed that the pupils will excel in their studies and be good ambassadors of the community.

The school which is tuition free will relieve parents of the financial burden of basic education due to the current economic hardship in the country.

Alhaja Muinat Ajose a party leader, noted that the projects and programs embarked upon by Folawiyo’s administration are visible for all to see and applaud. She appealed to the community to ensure the school is well secured and maintained for the children yet unborn to benefit.

The Missioner of Nadwat Society of Nigeria Sheik Abdul Ramon Lawal and The Missioner of Iqwan Society Alhaji Akeem led the public in prayers for the deceased, the survivors, Council Boss and Nigeria as a Nation.

The building was commissioned by Mustapha Sego and the Executive Chairman Hon Muibi Alade Folawiyo led others on a tour of the building. The new school has well equipped classroom with Interactive Smart Board for learning, Computer Room and Well Equipped Sickbay among other features.

Party choir members and Lagos Island East cultural troop entertained guests with their sonorous voices and cultural display to the admiration of all.

Present at the event were; APC Party arty Leader Hon Sobaloju, APC Apex leader Hon Babajide Damazio, Alhaji Sadiq, APC Assistance Organizing Secretary Hon Bayo Sanwo-olu, Hon Muftau Kadiku, Rt Hon. Rasheed Fashina former deputy speaker of House of Assembly, Party Leader Alhaja Muinat Ajose, Baba Adnini of Lagos Chief Alabi Mcfoy Executive Chairman Hon. Muibi Alade Folawiyo, Vice Chairman Hon Monsurat Balogun, commissioner Civil Service Commission Hon. Olorunoje Owolabi Council Manager Mr Ademola Azeez, Management, Staff, and other notable personalities.

Public Affairs Unit
Lagos Island East LCDA