Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, advocates for collaborative efforts among ministries to combat illegal migration and human trafficking, expressing concern about the proliferation of illicit border crossings in Nigeria.

During her courtesy visit to Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in Abuja, Edu emphasized the urgency of addressing the underlying issues of poverty and humanitarian crises, citing insecurity, unlawful migration, and human trafficking as primary concerns.

She also pledged to expand the National Social Register to include families and widows of former servicemen within paramilitary organizations, assuring the Interior Minister of this commitment.

“The inmates of the Nigeria Correctional Services will also be captured to benefit from the skills acquisition programmes of my ministry. For us to achieve the desired result, we must ensure effective and sustainable inter-ministerial collaborations,” stated Ms Edu.

Ms Edu stated that the collaboration would allow her ministry to obtain the necessary intelligence to coordinate and effectively manage any humanitarian crisis.

“We need intelligence from you. We just got the approval for officers from NAPTIP to be present at the different ports. We need you to know the importance of our collaboration with you on the border,” she noted. “We have to find ways to step up our intelligence in Nigeria. We have too many illegal borders.”

The minister said the partnership became necessary to accomplish President Bola Tinubu’s plans to reduce poverty and humanitarian crises in the country.

“We are here for serious business, and for us to succeed, we must work as a team through inter-sectoral and ministerial collaboration to achieve success. My new responsibilities cover a greater population of vulnerable Nigerians and to provide them with humanitarian services and alleviate their poverty in line with President Tinubu’s agenda,” she explained.

She added, “We need your support, and the heads of security agencies here will help us to work with our team to gather intelligence on how people are moving in and out of our country. There are issues of human trafficking, child labour and sexual exploitation, amongst other things, which lead to humanitarian crises. We cannot continue to allow this trend to go unattended. It’s not acceptable. We need your support.”

Mr Tunji-Ojo commended the courage and commitment of his humanitarian affairs minister for pushing the “renewed hope agenda.”

Mr. Tunji-Ojo announced that the inter-ministerial committee, led by the two permanent secretaries from their respective ministries, will collaborate to develop strategies for enhancing the agenda’s core objectives. He praised the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs for her proposal to provide skill acquisition training to inmates within the correctional services.