Foundation urges firm handling of insecurity, poverty for economic growth

African Refugees Foundation (AREF) has appealed for painstaking handling of pervasive insecurity and poverty in Nigeria through sustainable empowerment for economic growth.

It made the appeal at the Consultative Meeting on Facilitating Development (COMEFAD) to address insecurity, peace capacity building, poverty alleviation and food outreach initiative in the country.

The meeting was to sensitise participants on importance of peaceful environment and living above poverty through lasting empowerment, effective monitoring and related activities.

Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Adetutu Buraimo, reiterated that life was about value addition, charging the foundation to be proactive in all its dealings.

“The foundation is not to manage the outcome of the fire, but to stop the fire by engaging the people, who started the fire to create awareness of the problems, created by them,” he advised.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Olujimi Olusola III, harped on refocusing in the face of the rising Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) phenomenon.

He said when someone is empowered mentally to arouse him or her for work, the next step was financial assistance, hence the mental empowerment is useless.

Another BoT member, Josephine Smith, urged more focus on IDPs and increased activities on flooding.

Head, Centre for School and Community Science and Technology Studies (SACOST), University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, Prof. Kolawole Raheem, stressed that peace education should be introduced to broaden capacity building in the country.

He urged that youths and women should be empowered to address unemployment after school.

Partner and Associate, AREF, Segun Sulaiman, regretted Nigeria’s spiralling poverty rate, adding that the menace could be tackled through food (security).

One of the participants, Bayo Adesoye, advised that food security should be considered.