Humanitarian affairs minister Betta Edu has called for inter-ministerial collaboration to address illegal migration and human trafficking, lamenting Nigeria has too many illegal borders.

Ms Edu made the call when she paid a courtesy visit to interior minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in his office in Abuja.

The minister said the call became urgent to tackle the root causes of poverty and humanitarian crises, which she believed were insecurity, illegal migration and human trafficking.

Ms Edu assured the interior minister that the National Social Register would be expanded to capture families and widows of ex-servicemen in the paramilitary organisation.

“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 said the synergy would enable her ministry to get the required intelligence to coordinate and effectively administer 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 said the inter-ministerial committee headed by the two permanent secretaries in the two ministries will work out modalities to strengthen the agenda’s focus. He commended the offer made by the humanitarian minister to train the inmates of the correctional services in skills acquisition.

(NAN)