Gurku is a community in Nasarawa state, North-central Nigeria, where internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been camping since September 2014, as a result of the insurgency in the North-east. However, the IDPs lack access to education, potable water, and healthcare centre, including the road linking the community which is inaccessible. PAUL OKAH visited the camp within the next week and reports the sub-human conditions therein.
Ordinarily, Gurku is supposed to be a peaceful village inhabited mainly by peasant farmers in Nasarawa state, but the establishment of an IDPs camp in the community in September 2014 has led to the influx of people to the community.
With the IDPs living side by side their host community, Gurku has become overpopulated, with the inhabitants lacking access to potable water, basic education, primary healthcare, and inaccessible roads, among other things.
Worse still, even at the height of electioneering for this year’s elections, no single politician has visited this IDPs camp of more that 2, 000 persons to campaign or solicit people’s votes perhaps due to the isolated nature of the community.
When this reporter visited the community on Saturday, February 9, this year, in company of other well-meaning Nigerians, he had a first-hand experience of what the IDPs are passing through, as there was no sign of government presence since the camp was established.
Medicare challenges
Investigations by Blueprint Weekend revealed that one of the challenges faced by the IDPs is inability to access health care.
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, a pastor in charge of the only church in the camp, the Church of the Brethren, Nigeria, Rev. Moses David, said the lack of medical care sometimes forces the IDPs to take to the treatment of ailments like malaria and typhoid with harmful concoctions.
He said some IDPs, especially pregnant women in labour, die because they can’t get help in time since the only health care centre close to them is located miles away from the community.
According to him, the IDPs do not have money to employ doctors for the clinic in the camp, hence they go to Gurku town or Mararaba to seek medicare.
He said: “One of our challenges is medical care. The medication here is so expensive. Our people are suffering from malaria and typhoid all the time. Despite the fact that we have a clinic, which was built by missionaries, we don’t have drugs in the clinic. We have few staff managing the clinic, but they are not from the government or permanent workers. They are volunteers from the IDPs.
“Our pregnant women go to the primary health care centre in Gurku town or Aso. From the IDPs camp to Aso in Mararaba takes at least four kilometres. From here to Gurku town is two kilometres. If a woman is in labour in the night, a motorcyclist would be summoned to convey her to the hospital to give birth. Some of them deliver at home, with the help of experienced local women. Some NGOs do bring drugs to the clinic and share them freely to us.
“When there are no drugs in the clinic, we go to the host community and sell our farm produce to buy drugs. However, some IDPs die in emergency situations, when the distance to the hospital prevented medical help from getting to them as quickly as possible. In fact, in August 2017, we lost two IDPs to the cold hands of death when help could not come to them fast enough. The dead IDPs included a woman and a child. They both died on the way to Aso, as there is a comprehensive health care centre there.”
Education
Further checks by Blueprint Weekend revealed that the camp has a primary school established for them by missionaries, which caters for the educational needs of pupils from Primary 1 to 6. However, there are no secondary schools for the IDPs. Even the IDP camp primary school lacks teachers, as parents cannot afford to pay them.
As a result, only five volunteer teachers handle the pupils.
Parents task themselves to pay N1, 000 to register a child in the IDPs camp primary school, from where the five volunteer teachers draw their ‘salaries.’ Sadly, even the N1, 000 registration fee is sometimes too much for the parents to pay, as some of them are widows, whose husbands died during Boko Haram attacks in Borno state. Many of the children even have to drop out of school.
Electricity problems
As expected of an IDPs camp made of peasant farmers who cannot afford three square meals, there is no public power supply for them. Except for the natural light of sun in the morning and moon in the night, the IDPs stay in darkness from dusk till dawn. However, in 2016, missionaries from the Church of the Brethren in America brought solar electricity to the camp. The solar panel mounted in the only church in the camp provides a place for some of the IDPs to charge their mobile phones.
Inaccessible road
The road to Gurku community from Aso, Mararaba is not tarred and it is dusty during the dry season. Erosion has also washed away portions of the road to the extent that vehicles hardly ply them. Even motorcycle operators are very careful while plying the road even as they charge about N500 from Mararaba to the community.
An IDPs motorcycle operator, Umar Yusuf, who spoke through an interpreter, said the roads to Gurku are so bad that they have become a nightmare to those plying them.
“Our roads are bad. It is just as if we are not part of Nigeria. The roads are particularly bad during the rainy season. We even find it difficult trekking during the rainy season or boarding motorcycles. We use motorcycles to transport our farm produce as vehicles find it difficult accessing the road.
“If the roads can be this bad in the dry season, you can imagine what they will look like in the rainy season. We are just suffering here and I can’t wait to go back to Borno state when peace returns to the state,” he said.
Water problems
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, one of the IDPs, a middle age woman, Fatima Bako, who spoke through an interpreter, said scarcity of water is the greatest challenge of living in the camp.
“We have some few boreholes here, courtesy of some missionaries and well meaning Nigerians, but they are not enough for us. People carry containers and trek distances in search of water. We need help in drilling boreholes to get enough water for all of us,” she said.
Survival
One of the IDPs, Musa Bello, said they survive by engaging in subsistence farming, while some of them are commercial motorcycle operators.
He said the IDPs are hardworking and will not rely on anyone for anything if they can help it. He also decried the abandonment by government and pleaded for urgent intervention.
He said: “Some of the IDPs survive by operating commercial motorcycles which they bought through proceeds from their farms. I was even thinking that we will get government assistance through N-power programmes, but none came.
“I call on government to extend their N-power programme to us here in the IDPs so that we can grow from there. We sell our farm produce in the farm at Auta Balefi, but when the road is not good, you can imagine what we pass through before getting to the market.
Security
Situated in an isolated environment, the IDPs live in fear of attacks from Fulani herdsmen and possible attacks from hoodlums.
There are no security agencies, be it the police or army, to come to the aid of the IDPs in the event that they come under attack from terrorists.
As a result of fear, the IDPs had to form a vigilance group to checkmate petty crimes, even as many of them revealed that the presence of the vigilance group will not amount to anything in the event of an attack, as they are never armed, neither do they get paid for motivation.
Ibrahim Danladi, one of the IDPs, said: “In terms of security, we had to form a vigilance group. There are no police men or women. We live in an isolated environment, so we provide our own security, since government does not care about us.
“We don’t pay the vigilantes. They volunteered to provide security at their own expense. Luckily, God has been faithful and we have not been attacked so far by insurgents. Nevertheless, we need security as no one will predict what will happen tomorrow.”
Camp secretary speaks
In an emotional chat with Blueprint Weekend, the secretary of the camp, Mr Ibrahim Adawara, who punctuated his speech with sobs, said government has abandoned the IDPs camp since its creation.
He said the IDPs have been left to die for not committing any crime other than running away from Boko Haram insurgents in their home states of Borno, Adamawa, Benue and other terror-prone states in the country.
He said: “I am from Gwoza in Borno state. This camp was established in September 2014 and was commissioned on 15th May, 2015. The IDPs are predominantly from Borno and Adamawa states. In Borno, we have people from Biu and Gwoza local government areas, then Madagali and Mishika local government areas in Adamawa. We are here because of Boko Haram insurgents. We have about 1, 380 people here, including men, women andchildren. We have 229 families, 40 widows and 115 orphans.
“I plead with the government to come in and assist us. We have about 118 applicants in the camp doing nothing. Some of them are university graduates, while others are diploma and NCE holders. So, if there are jobs available, there should be considered. The 118 houses here are not enough for the IDPs. About 20 families are residing within the host community and are paying their rents. NGOs can no longer pay for them, because they are tired. This is the fifth year we have been here.
“We have been complaining to visitors about the road to this camp, but we have not seen any improvement. It is a great challenge. The IDPs cannot be compared to indigenes of the host community.”
Disenfranchisement
Furthermore, Adawara said apart from the IDPs being abandoned by government, they have also been disenfranchised as politicians have not cared to visit the camp to campaign for votes.
“Politicians don’t even come here to campaign, but we were surprised when Hon. Gaza, who is representing Keffi and Karu constituency in the House of Representatives, came on Friday, February 8 to campaign.
“He is the only one that has visited among the politicians since we came to this place. He promised to be assisting us and even collected the list of applicants. He also gave us his land, about 240 hectares for people to use as part of our farms.
“Government should ensure that our homes are secured so that we can return to them and live normal lives. We want to go back home. If we can’t go back home, let government come in and intervene in our lives as IDPs. We want to be among Nigerians benefiting from government.
“The elections are here, but the people are worried that they may not vote. We have our PVCs with us. We even had to go to Gurku town to ask the politicians there if we are not part of Nigeria entitled to vote. We don’t know where to vote and whom to vote for. It was just yesterday that Gaza from the PDP visited us,” he said.
Temporary succour
On Saturday, February 9, this year, veteran radio presenter and Head of Broadcast Wazobia FM, Nigeria Info FM and Cool FM, Mr Expensive James, led a delegation of staffers of Wazobia FM and well-meaning Nigerians to the camp.
Among the dignitaries on his entourage was Zainab Umar Yar’Adua, wife of the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, who came with her children and grandchildren bearing food items and clothes of different shades for children and widows in the camp.
Addressing newsmen during the event, Expensive expressed displeasure over the situation especially the bad road leading to the camp.
He said he had been visiting orphanages in different parts of Abuja, but was moved to visit the out-of-place IDPs camp on the request of Mrs Yar’Adua, even as he implored government to, as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of the IDPs.
He said: “When I visited the IDPs, I was not surprised at their poor living conditions. Before now, we have been getting information about the IDPs in the media, though government always claims in their propaganda to have been doing a lot for the IDPs.
“Contrary to what people read on pages of newspapers, watch on televisions and hear on radios, the IDPs are neglected by government.
Nevertheless, we cannot expect government to do everything. We can only pray for terrorism to end in the North-east so that these people can return to their homes to live normal lives.”
Furthermore, Expensive said though he had visited orphanages in the past, their plight cannot be compared with that of the IDPs in Gurku community “who rarely see people other than their kinds.”
“I have been visiting orphanage homes to render humanitarian services with my Help One Foundation NGO, but orphanage homes are different from IDPs camps. Most of the orphanage homes are in the city center and they see people everyday, but the same cannot be said of the IDPs in Gurku. The road alone is discouraging. Driving on the road, no sane person can imagine that people are living here.
“It is not easy for the IDPs to get food, water, electricity and other things that can make life easier for them. While orphanage homes are located in cities, IDPs are camped in isolated areas, inside the middle of bushes and prone to attacks, as there is no security.”
Plans for the IDPs
Expensive further said he will continue to cry out to government until the IDPs in Gurku camp are remembered.
He said government is failing in its duties by treating the IDPs as lesser human beings and promised to champion the cause of drawing attention to the plight of the IDPs, especially with the use of his personality as a veteran radio presenter and founder of an NGO.
“My plan for the IDPs is to advocate, orientate, advise, and sensitise people, especially the government. If you don’t do the above to the people out there, they will not know what is happening here. Our leaders should lead and not rule. The number one priority of a leader is taking care of the citizens. He has to take care of the safety of lives and property of his citizens.
“Sadly, what we see in our country is selfish interest. Politicians ust want to go there, embezzle money and promise the people what they can never give or achieve. We need a leadership school where budding politicians must pass through so that they will know why they are going there and what to do for the people. Without the people, even if you are given billions, the money will be useless.
“Therefore, politicians need to understand that lives of citizens are important. Going forward, we all need to see people, especially IDPs, as important as ourselves. We need to imbibe the culture of visiting the less privileged. Rendering help starts from your homes, neighbours before you can go elsewhere.”
Missionary speaks
In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, an American, Mr David Doubt, one of the missionaries that has been assisting the IDPs, said he has been contributing in his little ways to ameliorate their plight.
He said: “Since I came here, no organisation has come to help the IDPs. Some NGOs and religious organisations visit and support IDPs in Jos and other places in trauma healing, but they don’t come here.
“The solution to terrorism is for people to learn to live together as one. Christians, Muslims, and different tribes should come together to forge peace. Also, learning to speak English is important. It will be a big step forward for the IDPs to learn to speak the English Language.
“I came to the camp in January and will leave before the end of February. I came as a volunteer for the Montessori school for peace. I am a retired teacher from America and it was my church that rebuilt many of the homes in the IDPs camp. My friends had come before me to teach in the school and work in the community. I was in Jos about 50 years ago and my son was born in Jos when I was teaching there; so this is not my first time of visiting Nigeria.
Contributing to the IDPs
Mr Doubt said his son, a photographer, helps to solicit help for the IDPs. “My son is a photographer. He takes many pictures and uploads them on Facebook and people are contributing to help the medical clinic here, especially procuring surgery for anyone who needs it. They get better health and long life.
“As I speak English, I am going to teach the Sunday school teachers to teach the children how to speak English. I teach with three Nigerian teachers right now. Though my impact is minimal, I am making a contribution to sixty children at the Montessori school. The children are attending schools and will become future doctors and teachers,” he said.
