A critique of the legal framework for arresting the threat of internal displacement of persons to Nigeria’s national security

Abstract

Internal displacement of persons is a phenomenon that uproots people from their social, economic, cultural and educational environment and turns them into wanderers within the territory of their country. It is a situation that brings varying degrees of hardship to different categories of people. The aged, sick and children are tossed into the difficult condition of losing the social assistance from their loved ones. Family units and ties of kinship are broken. The working population is thrown into unemployment with the attendant loss of income for their sustenance and the support of their dependents. The youths are uprooted from school and the other formative programs in their communities. The serious human rights deprivations engendered by internal displacement is witnessed in Nigeria amongst the thousands of people displaced on account of the Boko Haram terrorism together with herdsmen persecution and sacking of people in different parts of the country. This situation causes serious insecurity in the country which is a grave deficit to national development. The visible difficulties of these unfortunate citizens ask the question, what is government doing to ameliorate the pains of these people? Thus this paper critically reviewed the effectiveness of the legal framework for arresting the threat of internal displacement in Nigeria, especially the National Policy on IDPs in Nigeria. With doctrinal methodology adopted, the finding of the paper is that the policy is inefficient due to some crippling defects.

Keywords: internally displaced persons (IDPs), security, Nigeria, national policy, legal framework, legal institution