Speaking recently on the complex scope of ending insurgency in the North-east axis of the country by Boko Haram, Borno state governor Kashim Shettima noted that the attacks by the insurgents on soft targets have increased leading to a boost in the number of the Internal Displaced Persons. SADIQ ABUBAKAR in Maiduguri reports the government’s predicaments.
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state had recently said that the Boko Haram crisis which started since 2009 had become more complex while the attendant violence increased in scope and lethally putting thousands if not millions of people displaced as refugees in their own state and country in addition to the sufferings and hardships they have been exposed to in the past years.
Consequently, Borno people were unacceptably subjected to unfortunate calculated and deliberate attacks culminating in miserable and excruciating death of thousands of innocent people and unimaginable destruction of billions of naira worth of property in virtually all parts of the state.
It will be recalled that the governor was saying this shedding tears publicly while addressing group of politicians including top government officials in Maiduguri over the lingering Boko Haram terrorism and insurgency which has continued to frustrate and traumatized millions of people sociologically and psychologically apart from the level the violence has paralyzed socio economic activities and grounded in no small measure , the political and administrative functions in the state at both the local government a council and state government levels.
It also regrettable that the situation has squeezed the state further to some extenuating circumstances which prompted the state governor Kashim Shettima to redirect the policy decisions of the state government in 2016 to the issues of rehabilitation and resettlement of the thousands of victims of the Boko Haram insurgency and the reconstruction of infrastructural facilities as well as public and private buildings callously destroyed by the Boko haram insurgents across the length and breadth of the state.
In addition, he said, thousands of people were forced to relocate to safer places and invariably became refugees in the neighbouring countries and Internally Displaced Persons IDPs in the relatively safer areas of the state as well as other parts of the country.
Shettima who explained further that as the violence decided to boldly despite all odds or obstacles stand on His feet to bravely embark on direct labour reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement projects of most of the liberated local government councils with a view to the IDPs returning back to their host communities first quarter of this year, became more complex and unparalleled in nature and scope, most of the local government areas were over run by the Boko Haram insurgents and were therefore renders unsafe.
It is also being observed that the influx of people affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the rural areas into Maiduguri metropolis, the state capital alone, increased exponentially to the extent that coping up with the situation became a serious challenge to the state government in its determined efforts and resolve to implement its policy decisions in almost all sectors of the state economy.
To put the security situation also in a proper perspective, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the needless loss if thousands of innocent lives more than 800 public or government schools, particularly, at the primary and secondary school levels were completely destroyed by the Boko haram terrorists.
Furthermore, hundreds of institutional structures , commercial properties, shops, residential buildings, local government council secretariats, entire markets of villages and towns as well as whole villages and towns were wantonly burnt down or set ablaze by the Boko haram insurgents, thereby appallingly subjecting Borno people to frightful and traumatized physical, social and psychological predicaments or trauma.
Consequently, exposing the innocent citizens of the state to felling and selling of firewood in liberated areas or places as the only means of their livelihood as their markets and commercial activities have been literally destroyed by the Boko Haram terrorists while the overall commercial nerve center of the Sahara trade through the Cameroun, Niger and Chad Borders to the state have been grounded to a virtual stand still.
Additionally, farming activities in the state which is the major occupation if majority if the people and many depend on as means of livelihood, systematically halted by the Boko haram insurgency in the wake of the kidnapping of the Chibok schools girls, to forestall similar abduction in other schools across the state.
Generally, it is vividly clear that the initial assessment of the state government on extent of destruction indicated that the devastation caused by the Boko Haram insurgency in the state is a total and absolute destruction in terms of socio economic and political activities of the state which seems to be the ugliest facts the state as a government is being confronted with in the past six years until recently, when President Muhammadu Buharis took over the mantle of leadership if the country on May 29, 2015, about six months ago , the Buharis administration came to the rescue of the state.
And since then, the situation is gradually. And systematically being reversed as a result of the appreciative willingness, zeal, commitment and commendable determination and efforts of President Buharis as well as sheer political will power to come to the support and assistant of Borno state right from the onset or beginning of his administration to prioritize the total defeat of the Boko Haram insurgency, restore peace in the state and region as well as country at large as the cardinal objective of his federal government.
It will also be recalled that as a result of President Buharis determination , unalloyed and unwavering commitment, coupled with the unrelenting and aggressive onslaught on the Boko Haram insurgents by the gallant and combatant Nigerian armed forces and other security agencies, all the local government areas hitherto over run by the Boko Haram terrorists or that were their influence areas, have all been recaptured or liberated by the military in support of our vigilante youths, the civilian JTF.
And by all indications, the situation is however, gradually returning to normalcy to the extent that the federal government in collaboration with the state government has already indicated its desire to return all the IDPs to their original or host communities across the state early 2016 or first quarter of the year.
On its part, it seems the state government has commenced the implementation of some policy decisions including paving the way for the rehabilitation and resettlement if the IDPs and the reconstruction of some public structures and institutions. And already some schools have been reopened and training or lessons introduced at the IDPs camps with considerable degree of successes in terms of attendance and the quality of teaching.