The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has called on President Bola Tinubu and other political office holders to spend their holidays in Nigeria to enable them to experience first-hand the challenges confronting citizens.
Obi made the call on Wednesday after concluding a two-day visit to Sokoto State, where he held consultations with various groups and visited an internally displaced persons, IDP, camp in Sokoto North Local Government Area.
The former Anambra State governor said the visit to the Ramin Kura IDP Camp, which houses more than 1,000 displaced persons, was his 12th visit to an IDP camp across the country.
He said he was distressed by the living conditions at the camp, where displaced Nigerians were accommodated in makeshift shelters and thatched rooms.
“During my tour of the facility, I found it particularly distressing to see Nigerians crammed into makeshift shelters and thatched rooms, with some rooms housing as many as 10 persons,” Obi said in a statement posted on his X handle.
According to him, the camp lacked adequate toilet facilities, a primary healthcare centre and a basic school for children living there.
Obi said the government should urgently improve conditions in IDP camps while addressing the security challenges that forced the affected residents from their communities.
“I have always insisted that as long as even one Nigerian lives in an IDP camp, we are all internally displaced,” he said.
He urged the government to make temporary accommodation for displaced Nigerians more habitable while working to resolve the underlying security challenges and facilitate their return to their ancestral homes.
The former presidential candidate also pledged to continue supporting people living in IDP camps.
“This is my 12th visit to IDP camps across Nigeria, and, just like in the others, I am committing to continuously supporting these Nigerians for as long as it takes,” he said.
Obi also used the visit to renew his call for political office holders to spend their holidays within the country.
“This is why I continue to say that the President’s and political office holders’ holidays must be within Nigeria, so that they can see first-hand the difficulties faced by these fellow Nigerians,” he said.
He said the vulnerability of displaced Nigerians had been worsened by what he described as the government’s failure to prioritise critical areas of development.
Obi called on the government and relevant agencies to urgently intervene in the situation at the Sokoto camp.
“Let me seize this opportunity to again call on the government and the relevant agencies to immediately look into the plight of these citizens and address their pressing needs,” he said.
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