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Tired of living outside their homes for about three years, the Internally Displaced Persons’ in North East take to the streets of Maiduguri, Borno State, to protest their living condition and desire to go home thereby drawing attention their plight
By Olu Ojewale
IT was a daring move. Under the auspices of the Bama Initiative for Human Development, BIHD, a non-governmental organisation, NGO, the leaders of the group organised a peaceful protest march for the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Maiduguri, the state capital, and decided to trek the 75 kilometres back to their communities in Bama, on Sunday, September 24.
The move did not go down well with the Police authority, who rounded up the leaders of the group. On Tuesday, September 26, they were brought before a magistrate, who ordered their detention. Ten of them are now cooling their heels in prison custody, waiting to have their day in court on October 23.
The development has called attention to the plight of the IDPs who are scattered in many states in the Northern part of the country.
The Borno State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, has called for the immediate release of the detained IDPs.
Bulama Abiso, the NUT chairman in the state, advised the government to dialogue with the IDPs on their demands. “May I join hands with others to appeal strongly for their (the IDPs) unconditional release, because what is needed now is more of dialogue engagement rather than the full wrath of the law,” he said.
Similarly, Khalifa Dikwa, a don at the University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID, said the release of the detained persons would correct the notion that the Police were playing to the gallery of self-centred politicians. “This is because the IDPs who are poorly catered for, are human shields or ATMs for the enrichment of the ruling class as well as an easy way to guarantee their bloc votes in 2019,” Dikwa said in an interview.
The don reasoned that the protest was a “political strategy” for government to “do the needful” in motivating the military and other security agencies to totally clamp down on Boko Haram insurgents in the state.
He said: “Keeping IDPs for this long with no constant communication, visits, progress reports or response to their appeals may give the impression that they are kept in Maiduguri, for political exigencies rather encouraging the military who placed their lives on the line to save them from Boko Haram attacks if they return, is disingenuous, to say the least.
“When I queried the initiators on the response of the security agents, they told me that their real intention was to merely test the waters. They are simply fed up with the traumatising situation in Maiduguri camps.
“They tagged it ‘return to Bama’ when their serial attempts to draw the attention of both state and federal government authorities failed to give prompt response to their needs, particularly in terms of food, shelter and education of their children after three years of hardship.”
Indeed, Muhammad Hassan, chairman of the BIHD, said the IDPs would want to return and continue their normal activities in view of the prevailing peace in the state. Hassan pointed out that about 70 percent of the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects had been completed in the area and that the IDPs were tired of living as displaced persons without any meaningful contribution to their personal and community development.
He said: “We are in Maiduguri for more than three years without meaningful means of livelihoods. The condition of our people is pathetic.
“The elongation in the process of returning displaced persons to their homes is moving at a snail pace and exposed them to unbearable conditions. We could no longer send our children to school; many have died of hunger and starvation. Most of us live in host communities and no one is supporting us.”
He said that most of them were traumatised, coupled with serious neglect and poor sanitation living condition. Hence, they were ready to trek back to Bama.
But in the course of marching home, they were stopped by the Police, who urged them to drop their plan of trekking back to Bama because of safety.
Besides, Damian Chukwu, police commissioner in the state, said that the group had not notified the command on their plan return to Bama. He advised the IDPs to dialogue with the state government and other stakeholders over their demand so that adequate preparations would be made.
Chukwu said: “The police have a duty to protect you and we will not allow you to gather people and expose them to danger in the name of home return.
“Also, there is massive reconstruction and rehabilitation works going on in the town, executed by the Federal and State Government under the Bama Initiative. We will not allow you to go because of your safety, you better go back and wait for the time when government will permit your return to the town.”
After the admonishment and persuasion of the crowds to return to their camps, the Police arrested their leaders some one or two hours later.
Ibrahim Bukar, one of the protest organisers and a leader of the Bama Youth Development Association, said that the police asked them to disperse and return to the camp.
“But surprisingly, the police arrested eight people among us and took them to the police headquarters. Our leaders (Hassan, chairman of the BIHD, and Kazalla Grema Kyari, secretary) went to the police station to bail them out but they were also detained,” Bukar told AFP by telephone.
Reacting, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State urged the IDPs to cooperate with government to fast-track the completion of rehabilitation projects in the town.
In a statement issued by Isa Gusau, his special adviser on Communication and Media Strategy, the government said: “It is to the government’s advantage if IDPs return home because their return will lessen economic burden of supporting them as displaced persons.
“The greatest wish of the governor is the safe and dignified return of all IDPs to their communities. Much as he wants the IDPs to return, he is also concerned about their safety.
“Governor Shettima is consistently committed to the ongoing rebuilding of private homes, police stations, hospitals, schools, water facilities, markets, council secretariats and other essential services in communities across 15 local government areas of the state.’’
Gusau disclosed that the government had constructed 20,000 housing units in Bama and provided modern health facilities, schools and police stations in the second largets city in the state.
Besides, he said the federal government was currently training a special Anti-Terrorism Squad and Civilian Joint Task Force, CJTF, to be deployed to the town under the Bama Initiative.
According to the spokesman, the special squad and the agro-rangers, specifically trained to secure farmers in their farmlands would replace the military.
“We have to ensure that there is full return of civil security before IDPs can return. The governor encourages safe and dignified return only after putting the right things in place,” Gusau said.
In any case, he disclosed that the state government had already re-built houses and re-settled displaced persons in parts of Kaga, Konduga and Gwoza Local Government Areas of the state.
Anyone, who is familiar with the development of events in the North East Nigeria, perhaps, would understand why the IDPs are anxious to return home.
Having been sacked from their homes by Boko Haram insurgents a good number of the displaced have been living with distant relatives and friends, many of them in Maiduguri, with the remainder forced into camps.
Mostly, they have become reliant on aid agencies for food, water, shelter and healthcare, with the dire humanitarian situation leaving hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine. A good number of them have also had their ambitions and their careers amputated through series of events in the IDPs camps.
For instance, a United States 2017 trafficking in persons report released in June this year, accused Nigerian government officials including military, police, and federal and state officials of being involved in “the widespread sexual exploitation of Borno State women and girls displaced by Boko Haram, at times forcing women and girls in internally displaced persons, IDPs, camps to provide commercial sex acts in exchange for food.”
Since release of the report, both the military and the Police have launched investigations, but reports of the investigations are yet to be made public.
In any case, the US trafficking in persons report seems to have lent credence to another report that about 3,800 new cases of HIV infections were recorded in IDPs camps in Borno State, between January and March this year.
Barkindo Saidu, the executive secretary, Borno Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, BOSACA, disclosed this in an interview in Maiduguri, on Wednesday, April 5, said that the new cases were recorded after voluntary screening in 15 IDPs camps in the state.
He said that currently 2.4 percent of the population of the state or about 108,000 persons are living with HIV and AIDS, going by the demographic survey provided by the National Population Commission.
According to Saidu: “Also, 70 children in the IDPs camps tested positive.
“So far, in the whole state we have about 18,101 new cases of persons living with HIV within this period and only 9,438 are currently coming for the Anti-Retroviral Therapy and counselling.”
To tackle the HIV situation in the state, Saidu said that Governor Shettima had approved N45 million counterparts funding for the HIV development programmes since December 2016, but the fund was yet to be released.
Without the state’s counterparts funding, it would be difficult for the BOSACA to access the grant provided by the federal government for HIV, TB and Malaria from Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, GPATM.
The executive secretary, therefore, renewed his appeal to the state government to release the counterpart fund and urged NGOs to support people living with HIV/AIDS.
As that was not bad enough, about a year ago, precisely on September 29, 2016, UNICEF, produced a scary report, which said there was scarcity of funds for its operations in the North East zone. Second, it said thousands of Nigerian children of the North-East were at the risk of starvation in the wake of the prolonged insurgency.
Hence, the UN agency said it was revising its humanitarian appeal fund for Nigeria from $55 million to US$ 115 million in aid of some additional 750,000 persons in need of support in the North East.
It said: “As new areas open up to humanitarian assistance, the true scale of the Boko Haram related crisis and its impact on children is being revealed. An estimated 400,000 children under five will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in three states across the northeast this year. More than 4 million people are facing severe food shortages and 65,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, mostly in Borno, the worst affected state.”
Nevertheless, analysts said if the nation had been truthful going by the records of donations to the Nigerian authorities in the last two years, none of the IDPs should be living in the dire need of necessities of life.
Funds had started rolling in with the N28 billion realised from the Victims Support Fund, VSF, set up under the leadership of Theophillus Yakubu Danjuma, a retired lieutenant general, during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Reports also indicated that the sum of $900 million was pulled together by Australia and other like-minded countries, another $200million said to have been donated by the US government; the sum of $800 million from World Bank; the sum of N6.3 billion donated by Aliko Dangote and other individuals; $248 million donated by the UNDP and $750 million donated by Saudi Arabia.
Besides, there have been annual budget of more than N10 billion allocated for the care of the IDPs and that is aside the series of undocumented humanitarian supports from NGOs, women groups, as well as religious and charity.
As recent as June this year, Innocent Idibia, aka Tuface, a Nigerian music star, pledged 60 percent of the proceeds from his yet-to-be released song to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Nigeria, to assist refugees and internally displaced persons.
The song was launched in commemoration of the World Refugees Day on June 20.
Tuface, who is also the chairman of the Tuface Foundation, made the pledge on Thursday, June 8, when he visited the UNHCR office in Abuja.
Bridgette Mukanga-Eno, deputy representative on Protection, UNHCR, appreciated the Tuface Foundation for supporting UNHCR in its intervention in the North-East.
She said the collaboration began when the agency received a donation from the foundation in February to support its activities in the North East.
According to her, 2baba had earlier donated N3.5 million to the IDPs, because he wanted to “put smiles” on their faces in February.
TuFace made the donation through United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, in Lagos.
The entertainer who kick-started the fund-raising with a N1 million donation in December has also called on his colleagues and well spirited Nigerians to do same.
While the likes of Dangote, TuFace and others are showing sympathy to ameliorate the plight of the IDPs, there are those who have found it as virile an avenue to make quick money.
On Wednesday, September 27, the federal high court, Yola, ordered the remand of three persons accused of forgery, stealing and diversion of foods meant for the IDPs.
Justice Bilkisu Aliyu, presiding judge, gave the order, at the hearing of a case of alleged forgery and stealing brought against the trio by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC.
The accused are Abdurrahman Bobboi, a former Adamawa PDP chairman, for allegedly diverting food meant for IDPs; Sanda Lamurde, a former commissioner for Finance, and Feredan George, a former chief store officer of the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA.
Altogether, the accused are facing 16 charges. According to Abubakar Aliyu, the EFCC counsel, the suspects were arraigned following a petition received from members of Agricultural Transformation Agro-Allied Farmers Cooperative Union, Adamawa chapter.
Perhaps, the biggest corrupt allegation so far relating to the IDPs is that of David Babachir Lawal, the suspended secretary to the government of the federation, SGF.
Lawal was said to have contravened the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007, and the Federal Government Financial Rules and Regulations in a N200million contract scandal over cutting of grass in the North East.
After much bickering with the Senate, President Muhammadu Buhari eventually suspended him from office in April, but the report of the findings of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on the matter is yet to be made public.
According to statistics, there are more than two million IDPs spread across Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states.
“Hosting IDPs in camps without solid rehabilitation plans makes them vulnerable to crime in a bid to survive. Members of IDP camps need to be kept busy psychologically and rehabilitated economically to help them recover from the mishap.
“Today, not a few Nigerians believe that the IDP camps are gradually emerging as grounds for politicians to score cheap political popularity by visiting to donate relief items while leaving out long term solutions.
“Government should ensure adequate funding of NEMA and SEMA to meet the challenges of IDP camps. It is pertinent that the two agencies persist in organising continuous capacity building, so that people would be aware of their environment and the dangers they are predisposed to, with a mindset of taking pre-emptive measures, by knowing what to do personally, and what to expect from government and other institutions in case of a looming disaster. This will prevent helplessness and total reliance on government,” Independent newspaper said in its editorial on September 12.
Perhaps, if things had been put in proper perceptive and less corruption, there would have been no agitation by the IDPs. In any case, the recent protest should be a wakeup call on governments that all is still not well in the North East of Nigeria and that there should be a concerted effort to do the needful.
– Sept. 29, 2017 @ 17:18 GMT |
Tags: Bama Initiative for Human Developmen Borno State Bulama Abiso Civilian Joint Task Force HIV and AIDS Khalifa Dikwa Maiduguri police The Plight of Nigerian IDPs
