Editorial
Anytime Borno State comes up for discussion these days, it brings up fears and tears. It’s either about the insurgents killing soldiers or unarmed people, or shortages at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Another dimension has been added to it with the outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) currently ravaging the world. Borno State has not been spared the effects. The IDP camp in Gamboru witnessed a stampede as people long denied adequate supply of essentials rushed to have some cash when the governor’s team visited them.
The team went with cash and clothes for the displaced persons. People in dire need, adults and children, men and women all surged forward in a bid not to lose out of the largesse, but, the outcome was no different from the story that emanates when agents of death call. Women and children, usually the most vulnerable members of the community were trampled on. Figures of the dead and injured vary, but hospitals confirm that those rushed in were many. It’s unfortunate that people die in what should have been a simple exercise. What an irony that provision that was meant to bring happiness turned to mourning? The dead have since been buried, but the living remain inconsolable.
The incident has raised the utter lack of organisation ability in the country. Logistics is a nightmare whether it’s about conducting an election or a census. Those who lost their wives and children would have wished Governor Babagana Zulum forgot them if they had the slightest inclination it would end up a tragedy. One common denominator in the usual logistics failure is the absence of data. The various data collected by various bodies, including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the banks and electricity distribution companies have not been harmonised to help in national planning.
Indeed, it could be said that the Borno tragic incident was a disaster waiting to happen. The refugee camps had been visited with so many tragedies that the situation was like an emergency within an emergency. Various international bodies including the Doctors without Borders, UNICEF, foreign donors and philanthropists have regularly called attention to malnutrition, poor healthcare facilities, squalor and inadequate education facilities in the IDP camps in the Northeast.
It is easy in the instant case to blame the beneficiaries for not being orderly, but whoever has tasted poverty would appreciate the prevailing mood in such a setting.
We therefore call on the state government to spend time in planning such outings. It would be scandalous if the state government and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have no data of those in each camp as such data is useful in planning for the people and securing the camps.
It is government’s responsibility to help the people live as close to normal as possible. The fact that they are held down in a camp is not their making. They should therefore be accorded the same rights and privileges due all Nigerian citizens. The best gift the people want is to be returned home. The Federal Government should accordingly provide the military the necessary support to crush the Boko Haram insurgents so that normalcy can return and we would not have to be losing people in clearly avoidable circumstances as we have been doing.
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