Before the IDPs tragedy

Since we have always failed to plan, the infestation that Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) face today as a result of the activities of Boko Haram, which forced a lot of our people out of their homesteads is mind boggling. Like everyone of us, we never made plans for the war with the terrorists, how much more with displaced people. With a six-year war and still counting, the tragedy is hitting home and it is sordid indeed. The reality that we face perhaps typifies our standard response procedure: deny it never happened, deny it is not that bad, accuse others of trying to undermine you. Those are the reasons displaced persons may yet pose the greatest challenge to our security, much more than Boko Haram themselves.

Today, we have about three million displaced persons and refugees scattered around the Lake Chad Commission member states and states within Nigeria. We have displaced persons down to Edo State for example. We have refugees in Chad, Niger and Cameroun. There could be more but these are countries that have official records of Nigeria’s refugees. In Nigeria, there are camps in Borno, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Abuja, Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, Yobe, Kogi, Edo, even at some point, Delta. We may not have camps in Lagos, Kwara, etc but rest assured, there are thousands, if not millions of other Nigerians, who have been forced to relocate from the theatres of war in the last six years but who took the risk not to over burden the camps but chose to slug it out there to eke out a living.

Our situation is that bad and like we pointed out earlier, we always fail to accept tragedy when it is on its way. We only begin to shift blame when we are overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the problem we face. Last year or thereabouts, public funding scheme was initiated by the last administration where about N21 billion was raised. It took the agony of these displaced compatriots to alert the nation about the funds raised that had not amounted to much considering the suffering they were facing. It was only last week that the president ordered release of the sum of N5 billion to kick off care for internally displaced persons. After that, the fund raising committee, headed by T. Y Danjuma together with his committee members redeemed the pledges before the president.

However, something happened at the weekend in the Edo IDPs centre. Buses numbering about 30 went into the centre run by a Christian charity group to more or less forcefully dislocate the displaced Nigerians. According to the security officials, they were sent to transfer the camp members to Jigawa and Kano states respectively. Why? Nobody provided an answer. And this is strange. It is our belief that there are a lot of conditions that must be fulfilled before such an action could be effected. First, how come the interest of the camp residents were not taken into consideration before the proposed relocation exercise? Who authorised the relocation? What assistance or facility is available in Jigawa and Kano but not available in Edo and why is it that such gesture cannot be extended to the Edo camp?

The camp in Edo is filled with thousands of children. Like other camp members in other parts of the country, they have begun formal education; they looked happy and well catered for. Little wonder the kids refused to move. The kids asked pertinent questions as to the motive behind the forced relocation. Their strident protest may have signalled to the law enforcement officials that it will take more than cajoling to force the kids out of Edo. Some of them even cried to know whether Edo is not part of Nigeria. Such patriotism and intention to advertise their right as citizens in the midst of the challenges they have faced over a matter that has probably claimed the lives of their parents, siblings, and friends, loved ones and property, culture, etc is the good that has come out of a bad situation. We must not allow such rare act of patriotism burn out. We commend the individuals who run that Edo camp for their humanitarian and patriotic work and call on government to instead offer them assistance to continue to cater for those children instead of insisting on moving them away from a place they now call home.

We commend this new gesture by the Danjuma committee; this is hoping that the government utilises the cash raised for IDPs for that purpose and that purpose only. IDPs in Edo, refugees outside the country and other IDP centres must benefit from governments proposed $2.1 billion World Bank loan, Danjuma’s committee fund and efforts by the Senate and House of Reps leadership. Here is wishing Nigeria does not encounter a malaise like Boko Haram again.

#editorial