Nigeria needs global aid to overcome B’Haram –Shettima

 

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, recently visited Diffa province in Niger Republic to see over 20, 000 people of the state displaced by Boko Haram insurgency. Our correspondent, KAYODE IDOWU, who was on the tour, writes

How do you feel about the plight of displaced Borno State indigenes in Niger Republic?

Well, all of us were traumatised by what is happening to our people who are uprooted from their ancestral home and made refugees in foreign land. I am personally touched but the good side to all these is that there is a silver lining in the horizon. The current effort by the Nigerian, Nigerien, Chadian and Cameroonian troops has indicated that respite is on the way and very soon the insurgents would be overcome and our people would be coming back home soon.

Do you have plans to visit other countries where displaced Borno people have fled to and do you think you can convince all of them to return home?

Obviously, there is a lot of clamour by the refugees to go back home for there is no place like home. I have the intention of visiting Cameroon for there we have refugees from Kala-Balge, Ngala, Gwoza, Marte and Dikwa local governments. We are going to go and sympathise with them and assure them of our unflinching empathy and support. Believe me, once our communities are totally liberated and clear of landmines, once infrastructural facilities are repaired, once insurgents in the countryside are cleared up, a lot of them are willing to go back home. But for now there is apprehension because there are still some insurgents in some of the villages. There are over a thousand insurgents in some villages between the Abadam/Mobbar axis and this is making our people not to go back home and they (insurgents) are still extorting money from the people and wreaking havoc. But very soon we believe our military authorities will extend their reach beyond the local government headquarters to the nooks and crannies of the local governments to clear out the insurgents once and for all. But for now the job is half done, if they are allowed to roam the countryside they can still wreak havoc. To be fair to the military, there have been major developments especially in the context of the recapture of the major towns.

You were once a passionate advocate of dialogue between government and the insurgents, but recently you seem to be quiet about this; has your stance changed?

Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, dialogue is an inescapable option. I have always been an advocate of dialogue and I will always remain one. As John Kennedy has rightly said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate.” So, along that line, I believe dialogue is the only way out. The most intractable of global problems are solved on the negotiation tables. The Irish question, the Israeli/Palestinian quagmire, most of the problems of this world; in Colombia, the rebels are talking to the government of Colombia. And in the Boko Haram sect, there are the “moderate elements.” Underline the word “moderate elements.” These are the ones that were forcefully conscripted into the sect, those that are willing to lay down their arms; are we averse to embracing them? We just have to embrace them and give them reorientation and reintroduce them into the society. But the nihilists among them we will never dialogue with. That is the truth of the matter. But along this line, I believe the “moderate elements” among the Boko Haram far supersede the “extreme elements.” As a result of fear, the newly conscripted Boko Haram insurgents were being forced along; they are not operating out of their own volition. They are not ideologically Boko Haram, but they are forcefully conscripted young boys and sadly they are the ones they push to the battlefront to die very horrible deaths.

What’s your estimation of the destruction caused by the insurgents?

Well, I think it is preposterous for one to start putting figures together. But the destruction they have caused is beyond physical infrastructure. Our people are psychologically damaged. And most importantly, what we can do now is how to rehabilitate our people psychologically, in terms of physical infrastructure, in terms of means of livelihood. Because a lot of our people are artisans, farmers and the poorest of the earth, the activities of the insurgents have further pauperised them. So, we will take stock on how to fix the system and assist our people, let us just get all our land back.

Does the state government have the financial wherewithal for rehabilitation and reconstruction?

I believe there should be a global effort; a kind of master plan towards rehabilitating the infrastructures, towards rehabilitating our people, making our education system work, towards enhancing and strengthening our health care delivery. It is beyond the resources of the state and, to a large extent, beyond the resources of the Federal Government because there are other competing demands for the meagre resources much so that the price of crude oil has plummeted to less than $60 per barrel. There has to be a global effort towards rehabilitation and reconstruction in the manner millions of dollars was mobilised for the rebuilding of Syria, Libya and other communities. We neither have much oil nor are we important in the context of our territorial location but we still need the support of the international community. We have oil in Lake Chad but I do not think we are of strategic location to the global powers. It is in the enlightened self interest of the rest of humanity to come to our aid.

In concrete terms, what is the amount of money Borno needs to rehabilitate displaced persons?

We are spending hundreds of millions of naira every month on the welfare of our displaced people. Within Maiduguri metropolis alone, we have 17 refugee camps and a new one has just been added to it. In these camps, we have 276,000 refugees as of the last count. This is apart from the over one million people living within their host communities. Some are living in rented apartments. Some are in the houses of their relations. Mind you, we extend our welfare to those living in rented apartments and houses of their relations. Honestly, in a single meal we distribute as much as a truckload of rice, a truckload of maize and we are slaughtering a cow in each of the refugee camps on a daily basis. I do not want to put a figure to it but all we are concerned about is the welfare of our people and no amount is too much for this. And this goes beyond politics because Borno belongs to all of us; it belongs to the PDP, it belongs to the APC and all other parties.

About three years ago when the level of destruction by Boko Haram was less than half of what it is today, you said recovery will take 50 years. How many years do you think would be needed now for recovery?

In terms of physical structures we can fix those things back in a year or two but the damage to the psyche of our people will take decades to fix because almost a whole generation has been wiped off. A chunk of the generation between the age bracket of 15 and 25 years has been wiped away. If anybody tells you that 15,000 people lost their lives since Boko Haram insurgency started, that is a cock and bull story. Between Maiduguri and Maisandari ward in a month up to a thousand lives might have been lost. When they are talking about the Syria tragedy, believe me, ours supersedes it. Between 300,000 and 500,000 might have been killed in this tragedy. Every single day, we are witnessing a countless loss of human lives. In terms of infrastructure, in terms of building we can get over that very soon.