The Children of Rural Africa-Nigeria (CORAfrica), a non-governmental organization, has completed the training of 1000 migrants, refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in agribusiness and educational opportunities in Cross River State.

The Founder of the CORAfrica, Rev. Dr. Peter Obele Abue, said that the training would equip refugees to become self reliant and reduced poverty, and economic hardship that the refugees are going through under degraded condition.

Speaking at the training workshop on Agro-business and Education Opportunities organised by CORAfrica, yesterday at Transcorp Hotel Calabar, the cleric lamented how the entire world now passes through a historical moment marked with alarming frustrations from wars, terrorism, kidnapping and insecurity.

Abue charged the privileged not to neglect those that are vulnerable, adding that the training would help to ameliorate the refugees, IDPS and migrants’ plight.

He stated that the training in agribusiness and education opportunities became necessary in order to afford the refugees and migrants opportunity to take themselves out from the gory conditions under in which they found themselves as a result of migrating from their places of origin to Ogoja Local Government Area of the state, where they now find solace.

He said:

We the indigenes and host of these visitors have noticed with dismay the gory conditions the families and children of these refugees are living despite the great efforts by the UNHCR and their willing partners.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that these efforts need to be complemented,

he said.

The cleric said that the CORAfrica is committed to helping the vulnerable, children and communities who are in dire need of help.

The workshop, according to him, is an indication that they are poised to relive their vision of building vibrant and healthy rural communities where every child could prosper.

In his remarks, the National Programme Director, Dr. Jimoh Odunayo, stated that the essence of the workshop was to mitigate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic that had negative effect on the economic well-being of many including refugees, internally displaced, women and children in Africa and the world at large.

He said that his organisation was poised at providing solidarity to under privileged households, mostly with educationally disadvantaged children that have poor access to health care facilities and living in degraded environment, without any good means of livelihood that come with hope of better future.

According to Odunayo, support through CORAfrica, came with community education centres, boosting economic empowerments among youths and women mostly from Cameroonian refugees settlement and poor households in the communities by giving micro credits to help them succeed in their various vocations.

He stated that the organisation decided to embark on the training of thousand refugees in order to close the gap existing between the training that the refugees had received from implementing partners.

He emphasised that the essence of the training workshop was to look at the opportunities that are available for migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons in the area of agribusiness and educational opportunities.

In his keynote address, former deputy Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Professor Lateef Sanni, who is also the project manager of the Phase Two Cassava Seed System Project at the IITA Ibadan, stated that most refugees are sound and should not be underrated.

Sanni emphasised improvements in specific areas of agriculture the refugees can key into to boost their prospects in agribusinesses.

He added that the areas of strength of these people could be harnessed for the benefit of the host communities.

In her earlier remarks, the Wife of the Cross River State Governor, Dr. Mrs. Linda Ayade, who was represented by the Secretary to State Government, Mr. Tina Banku Agbor, averred that the world was experiencing its biggest refugee crises since the second world war as a result of staggering 22 million people who had been forceful displaced by war and persecutions.

Drawing inference from the crises in neighboring Cameroon, Ayade’s wife stated that apart from being a humanitarian and legal obligation.

She lauded CORAfrica for organising the workshop, promising to work together with other stakeholders for the good of the refugees.

The event was rounded off with presentation of speeches from Professor Lateef Sanni, the State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ntufam On Owuna, DG of SEMA, Prof. Eke Ejiofor among several others.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.