Internally displaced persons may be the worst hit by the disruption in business activities and other means of livelihood caused by the COVID – 19 pandemic which has left most people relying on fate for sustenance. ENE OSANG who visited the Gudu Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp writes.
Life for residents of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp in Gudu, located some kilometres from the Legislative Quarters in Apo, has not been the same following the 14-day lockdown in Abuja as part of efforts to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Though not registered with the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA) after several attempts, residents had continued to eke a living within the settlement with the assistance of well meaning individuals and groups.
One may have thought that being located in the heart of the city the residents would be all smiles and live in relative comfort but the story is the reserve. Surrounded by the rich, they live at the mercy of whatever daily income they can get from odd jobs which are no longer available following the lockdown.
How it started
The shelter, which is headed by Mallam Ali Baba Gujuge, a 50-year-old father of eight from two wives, has 112 people and different family clusters: 20 married females, 18 married males, 52 children, 10 of who are orphaned, seven unmarried females and 15 unmarried adult males.
Narrating how the camp into existence Ali said after narrowly escaping the Boko Haram onslaught in Bama, Borno state, he ran to Cameroun but wasn’t comfortable staying there.
He said he subsequently came to Abuja to look for shelter for his family and he met the owner of the uncompleted building and begged to stay for a while.
Ali said it was after he had settled down that his immediate family, relations and townsmen who were stranded in Cameroun came over to join him.
“Boko Haram killed our chief, they slaughtered him. When the attack was too much I ran into Cameroun. I stayed there, but I wasn’t happy there.
So, I entered back into Nigeria through Banki. I crossed to Kumshe where I was caught by the dreaded group. They were all armed. It was only God that helped me escape. I had left my family in Cameroun. When I have secured here, my wife, came with my children, and my towns people started coming too,” he narrated.
“I was a farmer back in Bama but our houses were burnt down, crops destroyed, and cattle stolen by Boko Haram. There is no single person in the village now except the terrorists. Bama is no longer as it was.
“Anybody you see there now must be a Boko Haram member. As a farmer, I planted a lot of crops on our fertile land. Some others reared cattle.
“I will really love to go back home when everything settles. It is better than staying in another man’s land where you are at the mercy of people for survival,” he added.
Life before COVID-19
Speaking about life in the camp before the coronavirus pandemic he said: “These settlers depended on their youths who took up commercial tricycles otherwise known as keke NAPEP jobs but since its ban life has been miserable. It is worse now since the coronavirus upsurge.”
Continuing he said, “Many of our youths were driving keke, and they were able to remit money to the people who own the keke, and at the same time helped us in the camp. But since the ban they have been rendered jobless.
“The owners of the keke have collected them since they could not remit enough money as they used to. So, many of them have resorted to working as labourers at building sites, however, such jobs were not easy to come by. Just like many other ventures in Nigeria, you have to know somebody in the site before you can be engaged.”
He further stated that despite the rough situation, many of the men in the camp tried their best to cater for their families with the menial jobs they have been doing, but, the lockdown has left them stranded.
“Before the lockdown, to get a job as a labourer was very scarce. You have to know someone at the site, before you can get a job.
“We also get small jobs like cutting of grass, petty trades in wheel barrows, but now with Covid-19 we can’t do anything. We are now at the mercy of kind-hearted Nigerians who come here once in a while to help,” he explained.
Life under lockdown
On how they have been fairing since the lockdown order took effect, Ali said the major problem they are faced with was hunger.
“We heard on the radio that government was sharing money and food, but we haven’t seen anything. I wrote our names and gave it to the Chief of Durumi so we can be captured for the relief material from government but we didn’t get anything. I heard that it was shared but I didn’t get.
“There was a time that we heard that the government will be coming, we went to the place where they said we will get the money, but nobody came,” he said sadly.
According to him, “While Abuja residents were busy panic-buying to stock their homes with food and other necesary items, the Gudu IDP’s only watched things unfold while also adhering to safety measures.
“All those who had money went about buying things and foodstuffs to sustain them during the lockdown, but we that eat from hand to mouth are stranded.
“We eat from whatever we are able to raise daily. The lockdown is really affecting us. Government should help us. They should not favour some people and leave others. The relief materials should go round,” Mohammed Bashiru, another camp resident pleaded.
“Since we heard about the Covid-19 we are observing the best hygiene practices. I heard on the radio that we should not touch ourselves or greet anybody. We should buy sanitizers, wash our hands and cover our nose.
“For now, we have locked our gates so nobody passes. Only one person goes the market to buy things, and if the person comes back, he washes his hands. I always tell my children to wash their hands,” he added.
Challenge of staying
Blueprint Weekend findings indicated that the constant washing of hands often proved burdensome to the camp dwellers as the lack supply of portable of water. This is as their water source, neigbouring compounds, may have been a casualty of the COVID-19 scare as they have been stopped from fetching water from the compounds which are closed to visitors.
“We don’t have light or water. We often go to beg for water from another building at the back of this building but since this COVID-19 lockdown started we can’t enter the compound. Our wives and children have to go to look for where to fetch water daily,” Ali said.
The camp head further lamented that their fate in the makeshift accommodation was uncertain as the first owner who let them stay there had sold the building to a military officer who has threatened severally to throw them out.
“I have tried severally to draw government’s attention to our camp, but it is to no avail. I have tried to meet with the senator representing us but there was nobody to help me achieve that.
“If I will be able to see them, I will have the opportunity to tell them about my people here. Government does not recognise this camp. Many people have come and I don’t know where they are from. They take our statistics and give us high hope, but they never come back,” he said.
What hope lies for the indigent IDPs across the country who are not recognised but desperately need government interventions readily comes to mind given the predicament of the settlers in Gudu IDPs Camp.
