“I can abandon anything in my quest for a better humanity for all. And that is what I prioritize every day.”- Dr. Chris Chinedumuije
Poverty occurs when risk and inequality collide, regardless of the circumstances of any humanitarian catastrophe. The purpose of humanitarian aid is to reduce the vulnerabilities that increase risk. Humanitarian NGOs help those in need, particularly those who are suffering as a result of war, starvation, or other natural catastrophes. These groups are occasionally referred to as relief societies. Governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, and private nonprofits are all potential employers for humanitarians. They might engage in a variety of tasks include offering psychosocial support, distributing food and other necessities, providing clean water, or offering medical aid. Additionally, humanitarians are crucial in promoting the rights of marginalized groups and making sure that their views are heard.
Similarly, in the midst of bombings, attacks on children, and the killing of civilians, humanitarian workers have to stay neutral despite desperately wanting to speak out. They adhere to established rules derived from years of knowledge and experience. One key principle is treating people with impartiality. That means giving humanitarian assistance wherever it is needed and whatever someone’s race, creed, nationality or religion. Humanitarian staff also apply well thought through standards of assistance. With efforts to maintain neutrality, aid workers are sexually assaulted, raped, kidnapped, slain by robbers, blown up in roadside explosives, and targeted despite efforts to act impartially. And although if the deaths of foreign aid workers may be easier for the world media to cover, the number of citizens harmed is much higher.
Following Boko Haram’s campaign of violence and counterterrorism efforts to halt them, thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria now need humanitarian help. Malnutrition affects thousands of households, especially children. The food crisis brought on by violence has been made worse by climate change, which is especially evident in the fast desertification and the loss of Lake Chad, which provided a livelihood for millions of people. The Government requested humanitarian organizations to assist them in their attempts to help those in need throughout these three states, as is typical in many emergency circumstances. GOALPrime Organization Nigeria (GPON) a policy-driven humanitarian non-governmental organization providing humanitarian intervention to over a million population in Nigeria. Dr. Ugwuoha Christopher Chinedumuije, the country director for GOALPrime Nigeria, talks about how his upbringing and education in Northern Nigeria influenced his lifelong commitment to humanitarian work in a conversation with Susa Africa.
A benevolent personality
“I had a very conscious growth and amazing teachers during my formative education days. As a child, during my elementary education in the Nigerian Railway Staff School Zaria, we were taught patriotism – love of country, our communities and environment, as well as love and respect for fellow humans. We were taught and supported to be intentional in being contributors to the delivery of the better world and peaceful communities we wanted to live and thrive in. We were always told that we were the leaders of the next moments and the peace we wanted to see across communities in the state can be facilitated by us who were children at that time. At that time, Zaria and other LGAs in Kaduna state were known for various forms of crises majorly triggered by very insignificant issues. When the crises get triggered, lives are lost, properties are destroyed, and people run away from the state back to their respective states until peace is restored. We also loose friends as well because those who possibly lost their parents or relatives don’t return. And several of them when they run back to their respective states of origin or other places, they do not return to Zaria or other LGAs they ran from.
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“I remember when I was in JSS 1 in the year 2000, we were in school in St Bartholomew, Wusasa and suddenly another religious crisis broke out. We were in class, and everybody started running. Myself and other kids started running to nowhere. There were several mountains around which we ran to climb. All my life, I had never been so scared as that way. We were on the mountain until things improved and we were told that they had left the environment, and we came down only to be given the news that our CRK teacher (who was a Reverend) was beheaded. I still remember that day very clearly. I still remember that day very clearly. And I think after everything, I trekked home from Wusasa to Sabon-Gari because under such circumstance, you trust no vehicle.
After that experience, I committed to not just a better world but also a very peaceful world. We would have all been massacred on that very day. So ever since, I have had lots of interest in conflict management, peacebuilding, socio-economic empowerment and support for survivors and households of victims and very importantly the protection of children and their caregivers. That was how I developed the Humanitarian mentality which has continued to deepen ever since. And this mentality drove me into the establishment of GOALPrime Organization Nigeria (GPON) which is the fastest growing National Non-Governmental Organization in Nigeria.”
One of the most crucial elements supporting performance and efficacy in the humanitarian sector is leadership, according to experts. Better leadership must be realized for every key strategic and operational goal, from addressing resource gaps to coordinating aid delivery to improving accountability to advancing localisation. Aid workers must develop and adapt in a world that is constantly changing. However, the humanitarian character will always be characterized by adaptability and a passion for helping the truly disadvantaged. “I have always been a humanity-driven person. I can abandon anything in my quest for a better humanity for all. And that is what I prioritize every day.”
Dr. Chris Chinedumuije asserts that his development as a person was influenced by the many missions he had. “I have always been open to any mission or assignment that is geared towards the realization of a better world with peaceful communities and happy/prosperous humans. And to tell you how passionate I am with this, I abandoned my future of being a Chemical Oceanographer to becoming a Disaster Manager and Aid Provider and have been to the most difficult terrains in the Northeast in my insatiable quest for providing support and timely aid to children, young people and caregivers affected by armed conflict.”
“I have been to inaccessible areas and plied very dangerous routes to ensure that the affected population have access to relevant service provision. Different mission empowers me with more knowledge and broadens my horizon of understand the different needs and issues which informs better approaches for intervening to emerging concerns. I see things differently. Not from the lens of opportunism but from the lens of selflessness in service delivery.”
Impacting lives in BAY States
A major humanitarian crisis is currently affecting the three states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe in northeastern Nigeria. Millions of people are being uprooted from their lives by a battle with non-state armed groups that has lasted more than ten years and has spread into Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. “The Nigerian Humanitarian sector has tremendous positive impacts with regards to where we are today. Today’s situation would have been worse and there would have been a complete loss of hope. But the partners in the sector -including GOALPrime have always come handy in providing life-saving interventions as well as provide those supports that re-ignites the flames of hope in the community of the affected population.”
The social reformer explains the positive and negative aspects of the Nigerian humanitarian sector. “However, there is a limit to the support and services we can provide. Hence why we have remained intentional in ensuring that the government is carried along round the clock as we provide support because the government remains the hope for sustainability of the support we provide as well as the provider of the last resort as empowered by the constitution.”
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GOALPrime Nigeria has been conducting a number of initiatives in the northeast to address the humanitarian needs there. “Our interventions and their impact in the Northeast response cannot be over-emphasized. I do not think there is any National Non-Governmental Organization in the Northeast response that has reached out to more affected population with culturally sensitive and age-appropriate interventions like GOALPrime Organization Nigeria.” He further adds that his organization has over the years mobilized more than five million dollars ($5,000,000) via different funding mechanism and have continued to deliver timely, culturally sensitive, age-appropriate, disability inclusive and gender transformative interventions across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe in Northeast Nigeria. GOALPrime with her labour force of over 500 staff and community-based workers have been on the front-lines of the intervention and currently implementing multi-sectoral interventions and support in over 40 LGAs in the BAY States. GOALPrime has over the years reached more than 4,000,000 conflict affected populations with different types of support via the deployment of different innovative approaches. Current interventions of GOALPrime include:
- Socio-economic reintegration of women and children formerly associated with armed actors
- Case management for children with different vulnerabilities, including survivors of SGBV
- Education-in-Emergencies interventions which include, identification and enrolment of out of school children, Alternative learning Programmes, provision of learning and teaching supplies and education system strengthening
- WASH Interventions which include construction of water points to improve access to water, construction of sanitation facilities, hygiene promotion via motorized, speaker and door-to-door approaches, Water Testing support to partners and the State Government, Menstrual Hygiene Management for women and girls, dislodging, water trucking and support to the WASH-in-Emergencies Common-Pipeline
- Communications for Development interventions via the GOALPrime Humanity Media,
- Nutrition-in-Emergencies which include, case identification, provision of RUTFs, facilitation of Mother-to-Mother support groups, IYCF, Provision of OTP Support and treatment of SAM & MAM cases without clinical complications.
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Support and Counselling for caregivers, children, and survivors of sexual violence/abuse
- Implementation Research
“And it is very important to also mention our partners which include the United Nations (UNOCHA-NHF, UNICEF, IOM), INGOs (PLAN, Street Child), NNGOs (ROHI), Clusters (CP AoR, WASH-in-Emergencies, EIEWG Nigeria, Northeast Health Sector, GBV AoR, General Protection Sector), Donors (Irish Embassy, ECW, EU-ECHO) and other strategic partners at the Sub-national and National Levels.”
Consequently, the do-gooder recounts his experience collaborating with other organizations as a participant in this field. “With the increasing needs in the country and the multi-faceted challenges, it is not possible for one organization to do it alone hence the need for intentional collaborations. Different organizations have their different expertise and are driving by different initiatives. So, in GOALPrime, we are very committed to and very much open to collaborations. We have always provided interventions via a collaborative approach and our implementations are done with the lens of complementarity. GOALPrime is also an organization that has grown very impressively because of the support we have received from other organizations either as financing partners, strategic partners, geographic partners, and co-creators of people centred initiatives. And the working relations with all the partners we have worked with or are working with come with their different lessons which have jointly positioned us for better response and more impact in the Humanitarian and Development sector,” Chris Chinedumuije says.
Finding a balance in conflict-affected areas
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The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations made an appeal for more than $1 billion in aid in 2022, but it was only able to raise about 40% of that amount. This is in part because international donors are now focusing on nations like Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion since late February 2022. As indicated by Mr. Matthias Schmale, the resident and humanitarian coordinator for the United Nations in Nigeria, “$1.3 billion would be needed to reach six million people in Northeast Nigeria with humanitarian assistance in 2023.” In comparison to 2022, when 5.5 million people were identified for assistance, there are now 6 million people who do. This is an increase of 500,000 persons. He claims that $1.3 billion is needed to provide critical lifesaving assistance to 6 million people suffering from the devastating impact the continuing 13-year-long non-international armed conflict.
As an expert working in the field, Dr. Chris outlines the work his organization is doing to assist donors in striking a balance between the need to help populations affected by conflicts become more resilient and the need to make sure that emergencies get the support they require.
“While it is important to strengthen resilience, it is more expedient to address the root causes of the conflicts. When you look at the different response to global conflicts, more investments are made to strengthen resilience rather than addressing the root causes. And that does not deliver sustainable results, hence leading to a waste of the investments in the long run.
“When the causes of conflicts are not addressed as quickly at possible, every investment in resilience building becomes wasted because the affected population becomes more of an opportunistic population because they lose their power and ability for self-reliance. Protracted conflicts do no good hence why there should be intentionality to address the root causes as quickly as possible so that the affected population can go back to their normal life. When conflicts are protracted, there will also be donor fatigue and the resources drop hence the resource invested in building resilience. And when that happens, the likelihood of the affected population, joining the parties to the conflict becomes very high.
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“As an organization, we are now investing more in peace building, social re-engineering, socioeconomic reintegration, livelihood security for caregivers, life skills education interventions. And even our life-saving interventions are designed with the nexus lens because we want to export the affected population out of the realm of aid dependency to that of self-reliance and partners in sustainable solutions delivery. We have a duty to ensure that conflicts don’t become protracted. But unfortunately, the world is losing that consciousness which is very dangerous as it has a significant catastrophic consequence.
“Ideally, the emergency humanitarian response shouldn’t exceed three months before, after which we begin to talk about nexus and recovery. But unfortunately, it seems we are in the conflict age where conflict last for over 13 years just like we now have in Northeast Nigeria and in other countries. So we keep navigating round the same circle of life-saving interventions while the affected population completely loses their capacity to be self-reliant even as donor fatigue continues to worsen due to the protractedness of the conflict.”
A threshold for the SDGs in Nigeria
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly. The United Nations published The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 last year, halfway to the deadline. In order to save the SDGs and bring about significant development for people and the world by 2030, it was asserted that progress on the 17 objectives was going backward. What happens if Nigeria, like some other nations, does not meet up? “Like most other countries too, things will become more difficult for Nigerians. The SDGs is a framework to guide nation building to deliver peaceful and prosperous nations, people, community, and planet hence why each of the goals has its own targets and indicators. So, when a nation does not meet up, that nation is left behind. Although the targets of the SDGs may be ambitious, but it is very possible to achieve with the right political will and people commitment.
“In Nigeria, we are still not doing very well with the SDGs relatively. And the consequences are now being more evident that ever vis-à-vis the rise in the rates of crime and non-state actors, poor health systems, increase in out of school children, poor learning outcomes, open defecation practices, high rate of severe acute malnutrition, increasing rate of poverty and youth unemployment, religious and politically triggered conflicts, loss of productive assets and the very high rate of brain drain enabled by the recent JAPA syndrome/drive. These are the effect of not meeting up with the SDGs at the country level.
In Nigeria, we need to do more and be more intentional. This is not something only the government will achieve. It requires both the commitment of the government and the citizens alike,” he told Susa Africa.
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