Closing IDP Camps By May
Borno State Government recently set for itself a target of closing all Internally Displaced Persons’ [IDP] camps by next year. Governor Kashim Shettima said in Maiduguri ten days ago that the state has nearly two million displaced persons. Not all of these are living in camps; many are staying with relatives and friends. While the Borno State capital, Maiduguri bears the brunt of most of the IDP problem, thousands of displaced persons are to be found in other North East states and some have gone as far afield as Kano, Kaduna, Abuja and Lagos. Thousands more fled to our neighbouring countries.
The most visible of the displaced persons are however the ones in 14 camps around Maiduguri. These makeshift camps are mostly schools that were closed down in order to accommodate the IDPs. In the past year the military forces have recorded tremendous success in the fight against Boko Haram and have liberated most of the territory that the insurgents once controlled. In the process however the army rescued tens of thousands of innocent persons living under Boko Haram’s terrorist rule. These newly liberated IDPs, who were often in the worst of shapes food and health-wise, mostly entered the IDP camps in Maiduguri as well as those that were set up in recently liberated areas such as Bama.
We agree entirely with Shettima that a target date should be set for the IDPs’ return to their homes. There are very good reasons why this should be so. The Borno State governor enumerated most of these reasons. He said, “If we allow the entrenchment of these IDP camps, they are pregnant with loads of challenges of prostitution, drug abuse, gangsterism. And we will be confronted with huge social challenges of an entitlement complex, of people feeling that they are entitled to be catered for. In as much as we observe the Kampala convention, we will not compel anybody to return to their communities... Our people in spite of their poverty, still have some pride left in them. A lot of them will rather go back to their communities and eat guinea corn and millet than stay in IDP camps and eat rice and chicken... That is why we want to restore the dignity of our people by rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their schools, engaging them in gender empowerment initiatives so as to enable them return back to their homes.”
All of these are true. IDP camps’ social structure is the opposite of most Borno communities’ normal, conservative Muslim community and family structure. Vices such as prostitution, drug abuse, gangsterism etc which every community frowned at and had ways of dealing with, are becoming the norm in some camps and the earlier the camps are closed, the better for the communities to be able to restore ancient family values. Poor though most rural Nigerians are, they are known for their hard work, enterprise and self reliance, values which have been turned upside down in IDP camps where people wait for government and donor agencies to provide food and other essentials. This too needs to end as soon as possible.
Then also, the longer IDPs stay in the urban area, the less willing they are to return back to their rural surroundings. This is especially true of the youths. Borno State Government especially has been bogged down by the cost of feeding IDPs, estimated to cost it N600 million a month. In the circumstances that it found itself in the last five years Borno State Government could not have had any priority higher than housing and feeding the IDPs. Yet in the long run, these huge resources are better spent improving infrastructure and social services in the communities.
So, highly desirable though the plan of closing IDP camps is, there are many things that have to be achieved before it can be done. The first one is the complete eradication of Boko Haram. Army Chief Lt General Tukur Buratai said last week that the military has again stormed the insurgents’ last redoubt in Sambisa Forest. It is our hope that the security situation will be fully conducive for all displaced persons to return to their homes.
Hot on the heels of this is the question of which homes do they return to? Most homes, schools, clinics, water sources, public infrastructure and even places of worship have been destroyed by the insurgents. Borno State Government has already commenced the rebuilding of communities. Towns and villages along the Maiduguri-Damaturu axis, where peace was first restored, have been largely rebuilt. A lot of work is also ongoing in Bama, once the state’s second largest town and the one most ravaged by Boko Haram. Last month Governor Shettima relocated his office to Bama and was there for two weeks in order to supervise reconstruction work. The governor said, “We have reconstructed Bama by 25 per cent; our target is to reach 50 per cent by the end of this year and 75 per cent by first quarter of 2017.”
We congratulate the Borno State Government for its strident efforts but we again urge other stakeholders, especially the Federal Government and the international community, to weigh in heavily at this point in order to make the target date of closing IDP camps a reality. It must be said that the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative, which President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated in October, is almost missing in action. With the May 2017 target date looming, the committee is still holding seminars in Abuja. This is not good enough. Time is of the essence. It should quickly deploy all the resources at its disposal and team up with Borno State Government to achieve a steady and orderly return of IDPs to their homes by May next year.