In the country today where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps are springing up due to the criminal activities of bandits who raze communities, it is heartening to learn that Borno State government has shut down an IDPs camp in order to resettle the people.
The government has shut down the Mohammed Goni Islamic and Legal Studies (MOGOLIS) (IDPs) camp in Maiduguri.
The state Commissioner for Resettlement, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, Mustafa Gubio, while announcing the formal closure of the camp said, all the 500 households taking refuge in the camp were resettled.
“The development is in line with Governor Babagana Zulum’s promise to close some camps in Maiduguri and return all those willing to go back to their ancestral communities to engage in farming and other normal businesses.
“Closure of these camps, particularly those occupying schools and other related organisations, would make room for resumption of full academic activities in the affected institutions,” he said.
According to the Director-General, Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo, the affected households were given livelihood support alongside choice to either stay in Maiduguri, Auno or Damasak towns.
She said those who chose Maiduguri were given a rent subsidy to rent accommodation, while those who chose Auno and Damasak were given accommodation in already completed housing estates in the affected towns.
This is good news of hope and resilience in the midst of pain and terror. It shows that with determination the government would not be cowed and submit to terrorists and such elements of destruction, by being helpless and neglecting the people to fend for themselves. And forever live as refugees in their country and state for that matter.
Even though the Boko Haram insurgency has been there for long, rendering communities homeless, the governors of some northwest states and north central states should take note of the IDPs situation and make preparations of resettling them when the situation improves.
In any case, many of such camps are only so in name, they are usually schools where people take refuge and gradually make them their homes.
Some would select leaders to provide leadership, while in some cases the females become subjects of abuse and molestation.
Those from Borno State and other places from the northeast that came to Abuja and set up IDPs camps used to complain that they were neglected by the government, though at some point the government said the IDPs camps outside the northeast were not recognised.
However, at times since they are in the nation’s capital, organisations used to visit them and give them aids, but they are still in need of normal life with schools, hospitals and means of livelihood.
The dream of some of them is to go back home, instead of living more or less like beggars, because even the humanitarian aid cannot go on forever. And the petty trading they do and the like do not bring enough to sustain them.
Apart from living in camps some displaced people relocate to other places and go to houses to beg, saying they are displaced by bandits, and the sad thing is some are teenage girls that could be taken advantage of.
A friend told me that one young woman entered her house in Kano with three small children begging for food, saying she was displaced by bandits from her community in Katsina State.
Though some people are skeptical of such women, that they may be lying and capitalise on the situation to beg, the reality is that communities are displaced, there are widows and orphans and there
would be repercussions.
In this regard the end of insurgency and banditry is much more than ending attacks. If the attacks stop, what about the societal aspect, who is going to resettle the displaced people, help them to pick the pieces of their lives and build up again?
And what about those that leave and don’t want to go back, having settled somewhere, are they going to benefit from whatever the government of their states do to the IDPs, such a small token to do business?
I hope other governors take that into account, the cost of insurgency, banditry and terrorism is costly, far beyond imagination.
