CSOnetMADE urges renewed advocacy to save irregular migrants

The Civil Society Network on Migration and Development, Nigeria (CSOnetMADE) has urged the civil society groups on migration to double their efforts on advocacy to save lives of victims of irregular migration through data collection and other necessary interventions.

The position was canversed at a 3-day training programmed organised by the networks for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) being held Lagos on Tuesday.

Emeka Xris Obiezu, the National Coordinator of (CSOnetMADE) while delivering a presentation at the capacity building workshop on effective advocacy on migration issues which had in attendance the Journalists International Forum For Migration (JIFORM) and over 25 NGOs across the South West states, admonished all the organisations and the media to pay relevant attention to migration issues with the use of relevant languages and collaborations.

He said that the NGOs must consolidate on data sourcing and accessing by working with the government agencies to authenticate migration data.

“We must work with government to source and access data through collaborative efforts within ourselves and work hand in hand with government to approve it. It is when this is done that it becomes official and the Nigerian government too has to go through laid down procedures at the international level before it is acceptable” he stated .

Gofrey Akor, from the National Bureau of Statistics, who spoke on National Migration Governance-Data management perspectives: The Role of CSOs hinted that the government was proposing to a have a unified data base for migration in Nigeria.

While advocating for continuous engagement and interface with the government agencies for better migration management, he noted that the poor state of migration data in Africa could be improved by the civil society groups through continuous advocacy and urged the government to work more with them to improve the data collection process.

Ajibola Abayomi, President of JIFORM praised the organizers and called synergy with the media to achieve better result. “There is no gainsaying the fact that the CSOnetMADE intentions are laudable particularly as it relates to making the civil society groups understand the basic trends in migration, however we need to do more. What you are doing is commendable” he said.

Osita Oseneme, the South West coordinator of the NGOs said there was need to pay attention to the migration dynamics in the zone giving the recent trends. He noted that before the pandemic several Nigerian youths were being transported from Enugu State to Lagos for baby factory while their host paid to take charge of their babies days and months after delivery.

Oseneme expressed worries the rate at which migrants were being brought to Ondo State for farm labour, and citizens of Benin Republic and Togo for construction works in Lekki, in Lagos State.

The South West CSOnetMADE Coordinator wanted a halt to trafficking of Nigerians from Adamawa and Yobe states to different parts of Lagos state for motorcycle (Okada) business ditto for others being lured into the state as housemaids from Akwa Ibom and Benue States.