The IDPs in Nigeria: A Nation Within a Nation – Avoiding the Humanitarian Disaster Ahead

On Thursday March 19, 2026, in the margins of the State visit of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu to the United Kingdom, a hearing was held in the Jubilee Hall of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster London on the plight of displaced persons in Nigeria.

It was the PSJ-UK Roundtable on Peace, Security and Justice and the keynote speaker was Dr. Richard Ikiebe, Director of PSJ-UK and President of iNSDEC Nigeria, who spoke on the topic, ‘Voices from the Margins: The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria’.

Dr. Ikiebe noted that according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of December 2025, Nigeria has approximately 3.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), primarily because of insurgency, armed banditry, jihadist activities, and ethno-communal conflicts. This number makes Nigeria home to 3% of the world’s total forcibly displaced persons.

Also, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM), in its most recent Round 18 assessment conducted between September and October 2025, identified 1,378,124 IDPs in just ten states of the North-Central and North-West geopolitical zones alone. This figure represents a 10% increase from the previous round of assessments, showing that the displaced population is growing, not shrinking.

According to him, the 3.6 million IDPs as captured by UNHCR covers only those who are formally tracked. Some UN-affiliated reports placed the figure at over 8 million Nigerians displaced by mid-2025, making Nigeria the largest host of IDPs in West Africa; and in fact there is ample evidence that about 80% of all IDPs are not in formal camps but are absorbed into already stressed host communities, living in informal settlements, with relatives, or in makeshift shelters. This renders them largely invisible to policymakers and international humanitarian response systems.

Dr. Ikiebe made several recommendations that can help reduce and curb the IDP problem to avoid a major global refugee crisis, with pointers to what the government must do.

1. Prioritise the protection of IDPs as a constitutional duty, not a humanitarian afterthought. The government must enact and implement a comprehensive National IDP Policy aligned with the Kampala Convention, which Nigeria has ratified but insufficiently domesticated.
2. Restore security in rural communities, through enhanced military deployment, community policing, intelligence-driven operations, and inter-agency coordination. Farmers must be able to return to their farms.
3. Rebalance resource allocation: ensuring that funding for victim rehabilitation and IDP resettlement is at least proportionate to, if not greater than, spending on insurgent deradicalisation programmes.
4. End coercive camp closures, resettlement must be voluntary, safe, dignified, and supported with credible livelihood packages. No IDP should be returned to an area that remains militarily insecure.
5. Invest in rural reconstruction: rebuilding schools, clinics, markets, and roads in conflict-affected areas, as a precondition for sustainable return.
6. Establish an independent National IDP Commission with the mandate, funding, and authority to coordinate humanitarian response, track displaced populations, and hold government agencies accountable.
7. Address the root causes: including youth unemployment, political marginalisation of vulnerable communities, proliferation of small arms, and impunity for perpetrators of violence.

Dr. Ikiebe also called on the British government to:

• Increase bilateral development assistance specifically targeted at humanitarian response in conflict-affected states in Northern Nigeria, channelled through transparent and accountable mechanisms.
• Support civil society organisations, both in Nigeria and in the diaspora, working on peacebuilding, IDP advocacy, and post-conflict reconstruction.
• Expand asylum and protection pathways for Nigerians fleeing insecurity, in a manner consistent with the UK’s international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
• Fund research and data collection on Nigeria’s IDP crisis through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) partnerships with Nigerian and British universities, to improve the evidence base for policy response.

To the Nigerian Diaspora, he has this message:

• Advocate loudly and consistently in the public sphere, in the British Parliament, in the media, in academic institutions, and in international organisations, ensuring that the IDP crisis in Nigeria remains on the global agenda.
• Fund verified humanitarian organisations working directly with IDP communities, organisations that provide food, shelter, psychosocial support, and education to displaced families.
• Build bridges between communities, supporting reconciliation and peacebuilding initiatives between farming and herding communities, and between displaced and host communities, at the grassroots level.
• Engage the Nigerian government, through formal diaspora channels, town halls, open letters, and direct dialogue with officials — holding leadership accountable to its people.
• Invest in education, sponsoring children in IDP communities through school bursaries, distance learning platforms, and scholarship programmes.
• Pool resources through diaspora associations to fund livelihood restoration projects like, agricultural inputs, tools, irrigation equipment, and market access, for communities ready to return.