REFUGEES IN AFRICA
Sep 6th, 2008 by admin
If Nigeria should mismanage its future, it will be sad because no other African country will be willing to accept Nigerians. First, Nigerian refugees will not have space in many African countries and Nigerians may want to take over people’s countries. This they will not appreciate. Ambassador Olusola, speaking at the fifteenth anniversary of the African Refugee foundation. A Humanitarian, Non – governmental Voluntary Development organization he established in 1993 after the conclusion of his term as the Nigerian Ambassador to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
HOW DID THE AFRICAN REFUGEE FOUNDATION COME ABOUT?
My experience in Ethiopia motivated me. I had been engaged with the Nigerian Government as the Nigerian Ambassador based in Addis Ababa and I had travelled all over Africa particularly to places were there was some struggle, some conflict such as Somalia, South Africa itself and Liberia. When I came to the end of my term at Addis Ababa, I felt I needed to do something for the rest of my life so with the experience gained in my relations with those refugees I decided to invite friends of mine from different parts of Africa together to try and do something about preventing the occurrence of refugees in African countries and to formulate a programme that would ensure peaceful transition in many parts of Africa, they accepted and we set up what is called the African refugee Foundation.
TELL US ABOUT MORE ABOUT THE FOUNDATION & REFUGEES IN AFRICA?
African Refugee Foundation wanted a space to plan, to bring about how to prevent the occurrence of refugee and how to set up refugee centres. We were interested in looking after refugees, then a problem broke out in Liberia which led us to help refugees to schools, offer food, offer medical services. We stumbled into the actual taking care of refugees rather than what we had designed – preventive measures to ensure that Nigeria and other African countries do not follow in the same path.
Gradually African Refugee Foundation (AREF) become an organisation that can help refugees, can offer training to refugees, offer refugees the skills needed, encourage peace and facilitate development. We became managers of refugees rather than preventers of refugee situations. This we have done for fifteen years.
HOW MUCH SUPPORT DO YOU RECEIVE FROM AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS?
The African government for some reason has given us less than required attention, money is immaterial, We require an understanding from the African governments of the state of refugees in their countries and why danger states for instance by a government in a given society can lead directly to the production of refugees. Not every government wants to hear this because they understand what to do. We request that governments modify certain policies that will directly lead to the production of
Refugees.
ISN’T CONFLICT VERY MUCH PART OF OUR LIFE?
It is if it occurs within the internal either Nigeria, or state or family. Conflicts become very violent and more complicated when some outsider , because they have vested interest in the future of the conflicting units, now attempt to come in to worsen the conditions of conflict so they can impose their own yardsticks. The people who are living at peace may not in fact realize what they have until they allow that chink to be open, and allow people from outside who know what they have. When that intervention occurs, conflicts get more complicated and therefore cannot be resolved through our natural way of resolving our own conflicts.
HOW DO WE CULTIVATE PEACE?
The ideals of a free society are worth pursuing and developments can occur based on such indices as equity and fairness. And it is not impossible for every society to achieve that state. Perhaps it is the religious organisations, not AREF that should be leading this; those who certainly draw a link between the divine and the inspiration that they live b. We look up to them to continuously guide societies in which they find themselves.