On Wednesday, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, assured the international community of the 10th Assembly’s resolve to domesticate critical international treaties, protocols and agreements signed by Nigeria as part of ongoing efforts to address the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Speaker Abbas expressed his readiness to contact the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and the Ministry of Justice to ensure the domestication of international conventions that would aid humanitarian activities in Nigeria.
The Speaker made this known when receiving a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nigeria led by Yann Bonzon in Abuja.
Others on the entourage were the Head of Prevention, Rafiullah Qureshi; the Operational Legal Coordinator, Anne Lardy; and the Legal Adviser, Tongret Gowon.
The Speaker commended the ICRC for its interventions in the humanitarian crises across Nigeria.
He thanked the Red Cross for its contributions on humanity and interventions in Nigeria, especially in the North-East and the North-West.
“I’m fully aware of some of the challenges with some of the treaties and protocols that Nigeria has not domesticated,” the Speaker noted, while assuring that concrete steps would be taken on them under his leadership.
Speaker Abbas noted that the House has a standing committee on treaties, protocols and agreements, which oversees Nigeria’s bilateral and multilateral relationships. “It is only in the House that we have a Committee on Internally Displaced Persons,” he also noted.
The Speaker urged the Red Cross to work hand-in-hand with the House for a better understanding of interventions and allocation of resources to critical aspects of the humanitarian crisis in Nigeria.
Earlier, Bonzon, who led the ICRC delegation, presented an engagement plan to the Speaker while announcing that the Red Cross was planning a workshop with stakeholders to share ideas on different topics, especially on internal displacement and managing humanitarian crisis.
Bonzon noted that the ICRC has been working with the House of Reps and the National Assembly by extension for decades. “We are here to talk about our activities in Nigeria,” he said.
The Red Cross boss congratulated the Speaker for the successful unveiling of the House’ Legislative Agenda earlier on Tuesday, noting that some issues in the policy document are of interest to the ICRC.
Bonzon said with Speaker Abbas’ record of sponsoring most bills in the 9th House, the lawmaker would be “a great support to the Red Cross.”
While decrying the bottlenecks encountered in ensuring domestication of treaties, protocols and agreements that are of interest to the ICRC, Bonzon said: “For us, we are very happy to pursue and continue with these engagements.”