By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
ABUJA: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, are daily confronted with many issues such as hunger, malnutrition, lack of potable water, inadequate healthcare and sanitation, lack of access to education, sexual abuse of women and girls, as well as a range of human rights issues.
In a bid to address these emerging challenges faced by the IDPs, the Journalists for Christ(JFC), on Saturday unveiled a publication titled ‘Silent Cries’, which is a summary of special media reports on the pains, hopes, aspirations and struggles of well-meaning Nigerians, who by reason of circumstances beyond them became Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.
In his opening remarks, the Secretary, JFC Board, Mr. Gbenga Osinaike, while giving a brief background on the JFC/WACC Project on Media and IDP, said the project had the intention to create passion in Journalists to continuously bring the issues of the IDPs to the front burner.
“This project is all about thinking about the people, the stories written were enlightening and we hope that today will not be the last day of interacting with the IDPs. We want you to take it up from here and do more reporting of the IDPs”, he said.
Also speaking, the Project Advisor, JFC, Mr Sanmi Falobi, noted that ‘Silent Cries’ is a story of IDPs told by themselves, using the instrumentality of media friends, adding that 20 stories were published by Journalists who were trained.
He said the publication was to bring the unheard voices of the IDPs to the front burner, to see how to further expand the scope for their voices to be heard by those that matter and are responsible for improving their welfare.
“Some people were not IDPs a week ago, but today they are, as a result of recent humanitarian disasters. That’s just the reality of what we have. So, we are all involved and we all need to get our voices together. The publication will further encourage and challenge us to do more for the IDPs because as media persons, our pen remains powerful to advance the voices of the IDPs”, he said.
While reviewing the publication, Mr Seun Akioye, a Development Communication Expert, said the project revealed that there are different types of cries but the most heart-breaking of all is the silent one.
He added that the project found several infractions of rights abuse, malnutrition, Gender-based Violence including sexual violence, hunger and starvation, dehumanising housing conditions, total and complete lack of access to education for their children and healthcare.
Akioye noted that, “‘Silent Cries’, according to JFC, will be instrumental in driving policy actions that would enhance the welfare of the IDPs in Nigeria especially the institutional stakeholders like the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian and Disaster Management and others. Those are the people we want to reach, we hope that continuous reporting of these issues would get to them and ennoble policy change.
“‘Silent Cries’ has recommended that; the media should continue to highlight issues and bring to the fore concerns of persons affected by hostilities and conflicts, especially on the provision of welfare amenities, facilities and safe shelter as part of the media’s social obligations to society; CSO should demand investigation of abuses and prosecution of infractions like rape, assaults and corruption perpetrated against IDPs.
“Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development as well as other agencies, special committees or task force by the Presidency or the National Assembly should be more proactive and strategic in responding to the needs and welfare of IDPs within the context of providing succour to ameliorate their pains, not only by distributing relief materials, but in addition to providing health, psychosocial supports educational and skills-capacity support”, he said.
For his part, the Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Council, Mr. Ochiaka Ugwu, in his goodwill remarks, emphasized on the need for journalists to be compassionate and show empathy when reporting the disadvantaged and downtrodden in the society
He appealed to Journalists to focus on compassionate journalism by reporting the unreported and giving voice to the voiceless, adding that the stories will help inform policies that will affect the IDPs positively.
