By Jude Opara, Abuja

Nigerians and other nationalities from the West African sub-region, constitute 40% of the 70 million refugees in the world, the Secretary General of ECOWAS Parliament, John Azumah , has said.

Azumah who stated this yesterday in Abuja  during the official inauguration of the West African Parliamentary Press Corps and Senate Press Corps Day, at the National Assembly, added that humanitarian situations in the region were products of bad and unimaginative governance .

 Painting the gloomy picture of the region on humanitarian crises and poverty level in his key note address read by the Director of Parliamentary Affairs and Research of the ECOWAS Parliament, Mr Bertin  Some, on his behalf, Azumah said in Nigeria alone, 2.

He said: It is regrettable that despite the efforts being madein West Africa, the region is plagued with multiple crises .

 “For instance,  Nigeria’s North -East , North – West and North – Central are ravaged by Boko Haram terrorism and farmer-herder clashes , which has resulted in the killing of over 20,000 people and with about 2.1 million people displaced .

 “This carnage has caused huge humanitarian crisis , such thatthere appear to be a lethargy of addressing the crises with funds by the international agencies .

 “In Mali, insurgency has run down the country and displaced many. These crises are replicated in many parts of the region.

“According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees  (UNHCR),  West Africa is one of the regions of the world with the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons , estimated to constitute about 40% of the 70million refugees and displaced persons in the world “.

The Scribe of the ECOWAS Parliament, blamed the sorry state of the region on bad governance which according to him, had rendered many affected countries financially impotent to the point of depending on funds from donor agencies to implement their yearly budgets .

 ”The political crises that trigger these humanitarian situations in the region are products of bad and unimaginative governance, which has plunged a great number of our citizens into poverty and untold hardship.

 ”The poverty level is so high in the region such that many member states largely depend on donor agencies and international humanitarian agencies to fund their activities and programmes because their streams of revenues can no longer fund the national budgets “, he lamented .

As a way out of the bad situations, he tasked the media and civil society organizations across the sixteen countries in the region to hold their various governments.

The vibrancy of the media according to him, is evaluated based on the degree of consciousness of the citizens in challenging leaders to live up to their duties and obligations.

 However in  his own speech ,  the President of the Senate , Ahmed Lawan who was represented by his Deputy , Senator Ovie Omo- Agege assured the gathering that the 9th National Assembly has put on ground , feasible template for populist synergy with the executive arm of government towards addressing the problems of insecurity, unemployment and high poverty level among the populace .

“These we believed, can be effectively tackled with required synergy with the executive arm of government and effective oversight duties by the Parliament .

” The press as the fourth estimate of the  realm and societal watchdog, is expected to focus more strongly on the imperative of legislative independence “, he said .