From all indications, Madalla, a town in Niger State, has yet to recover fully from the December 25, 2011 bombing at St. Theresa Catholic Church, in which about 43 persons were killed.
The ever-busy Madalla Market is now a ghost of its former self, with several stalls empty, while the few traders there often complain of low sales.
Apparently, the traders are now always on edge, wary of a possible attack by members of the Boko Haram sect who perpetrated the Christmas Day bombing.
Although security has been beefed up in the area, most residents still live and move about in fear, while many people have relocated from the neighbourhood.
Miss Medinat Yakubu, an electronics dealer, says that Madalla was very conducive for business before the Dec. 25 terrorist act.
“Doing business in Madalla had been profitable until the bomb explosion which scared many people away from the town; resulting in the relocation of many residents and even businesses to safer settlements.
“Before the explosion, our daily sales were in the region of N1.3 million but shortly after the explosion, there was a lull in the market. Nowadays, we hardly record more than N150, 000 daily,’’ she adds.
Mrs Chinedum Igwe, a fish seller who has been living in Madalla for over 10 years, complains that “even when we are at the market, we are always afraid because we have been attacked there before.
“In fact, there was a time when some people came to the market and started shooting sporadically; so, once it is 5 p.m., traders start packing their wares, unlike before when we often stayed in the market for longer periods.
“Even when it rains in the evening, people leave immediately after the rains because we don’t know what may happen after the rains,’’ she says.
Besides, Rev. Fr. Linsmary Daniel, an assistant priest at St Theresa Catholic Church, says that the population of worshippers at church has decreased by about 60 per cent after the Dec.25, 2011 episode.
“Many of our parishioners left; in fact, there was someone who was running a printing press here but he left because of Boko Haram.
“His workers are now jobless; one of them, who incidentally is my friend, has gone back to his village to begin from the scratch.
“I know of someone else who relocated to Abuja for fear of losing his business to the Boko Haram insurgents. So, you can imagine if the economy of Madalla is slowly dwindling, what will happen in a place like Maiduguri that happens to be the hub of the Boko Haram insurgency,’’ he asks.
Buttressing Daniel’s viewpoint, Mr Nelson Nwosu, an economic and political analyst, says the current security challenges facing Nigeria have had grave socio-economic, political and geographical impact on the nation.
He says that geographically, the problem has led to a sustained migration of the people which, in turn, brings about overcrowding of some areas.
“People tend to leave the places of conflict to go to places where there is relative peace; this leads to overcrowding because people will desert a particular area and move to places where they feel there is relative peace.
“And one of the effects of overcrowding is that there will be a rise in vices such as prostitution, drug abuse, armed robbery, among others, in the overcrowded places,’’ he says.
Besides, Nwosu stresses that politically, the government would not be able to focus its attention on some development areas, as appreciable resources would be deployed to solving the country’s security problems.
Economically, he says that productivity will be low in areas facing serious security challenges.
“Unemployment in places like Yobe is rife because banks have to wind up and many workers in such places are now jobless. Apart from that, lives and property that have been destroyed in these places are not quantifiable,’’ he adds.
Nwosu explains that the crisis has even taken its toll on the existing infrastructure, adding that putting up new structures later may not be feasible.
“Banks, police stations, schools, markets and telecommunication masts have been burnt down,’’ he notes.
He laments that most of the infrastructure in use today were provided over 10 years ago, stressing that it would be extremely difficult to replace the ones that have been destroyed.
Nwosu moans that the current security challenges in the northern part of the country and the wanton destruction of property there will further impoverish the region.
He argues that while the South would be striving to forge ahead, the North would be busy rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure.
Dr Dominic Ogbeche, a psychiatrist at the National Hospital, Abuja, says that incidents like the Dec. 25, 2011 Madalla bombing could induce psychological trauma, otherwise known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), among the people.
He expatiates that PTSD is a traumatic condition that can crop up after a person has undergone a harrowing experience caused by physical, sexual or psychological injury or death.
“People respond to such stressful situations differently; some respond to the situations with symptoms of depression and anxiety, including fear, worry, irritability, poor concentration and poor sleep.
“After that, such people try to avoid thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places or people that remind them of the trauma,’’ Ogbeche says.
Concerned citizens have repeatedly expressed concern that the economic activities of many towns in the northern part of the country have been crippled due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
However, the Federal Government has been making designed efforts to tackle the crisis by setting up a committee to dialogue with members of the Boko Haram sect.
Observers, nonetheless, insist that the committee needs the support of every Nigerian for it to succeed in its assignment.
