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Internally Displaced Persons, IDP camps in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital and other parts of Northern Nigeria are stark reminders of Boko Haram, Fulani bandits, ISWAP, Ansaru, Lakuruwa, JNIM and other Islamist terrorist groups’ heinous crime against innocent citizens. Indeed, apart from Maidugiri, insurgency/ terrorism-induced IDP camps litter many northern states and the FCT, Abuja. (Check my column of 9th June 2025, Titled “ANOTHER LOOK AT INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS”). As at 2025 UNICEF, estimated that there were over 3 Million Internally Displaced Persons in IDP camps in many parts of Northern Nigeria .
Statistical records show that the population IDPs globally stood at 83.4m people at the end of 2024. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) also agrees with this figure. It is a significant increase from the 75.9 million IDPs record. In Nigeria’s northern region, millions of homeless, abandoned child- street beggars known as almajiris are handy foot- soldiers and informants of terrorists roaming a swath of ungoverned spaces in that part of the country. These terrorists’ vicious, relentless attacks on communities and destruction of livestock, properties and farmlands are the reason IDP camps dot Northern Nigeria.Curbing the Almajiri menace will go a long way in thawing their recruitment by terrorists. Governors of Northern states must muster the social and politcal will to ban the Almajiri concept the same way the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike brushed aside opposition and protestations to place a firm ban on their activities in Abuja.
The word Almajiri is derived from the Arabic “Almuhajirun,” meaning an emigrant. It usually refers to a person who migrates from the luxury of his home to other places or to a popular teacher in the quest for Islamic knowledge. I recall some years ago when I was attacked by hoodlums at Area 1, Abuja where an IDP camp was located. I almost lost my life due to over bleeding from the attack. My attackers escaped into the nearby IDP camp. Many innocent residents of Abuja had also experienced such attacks along the highways and major roads in the FCT. What I’m saying in a nutshell is that there is a disturbing nexus between the Almajiri phenomenon, terrorism, IDPs and IDP camps, especially in the Northern half of the country.
In 2018 I was invited to join General Tukur Buratai who was then the Chief of Army Staff on a trip to Sambisa Forest in Borno state for an on the spot assessment of the military operations there and the troops at the war front.I also had the opportunity to visit an IDP camp in Bama local government area of the state and discovered that Boko Haram members were infiltrating the camp for recruitment purposes. Aside terrorists infiltrating these camps for recruitment purposes, most of the young boys between the ages of 12-18 were also lured with money to become informants while woman were used as sex slaves resulting in unwanted pregnancies and babies. Criminalities also thrived in the camp as stolen items were easily found in there. It was therefore, heart warming that the Borno State Governor Borno State, Babagana Zulum, ordered the immediate closure of the Bama IDP camp and the IDP camp in Maiduguri. He cited rising criminality and concerns of insurgents infiltrating the camps.
It is equally exhilarating to note that the state government is resettling residents back to their ancestral communities. While I commend the Governor for the resettlement of the IDPs, I also feel that his action is belated. He was rather acting very late. When experienced, agenda-setting security stakeholders and opinion moulders like yours sincerely, after thorough investigation, urge for action on issues bothering on national or state security, they should be given a listening ear . I remember that in 2018 I proposed for the establishment of state police. At that time many regarded it as a security joke and laughed me to scorn. Today, with the approval by the National Assembly for the establishment of state police, I have been vindicated. Had my advice been accepted and implemented back then, Zulu and other Northern governors won’t be having the problem of IDP camps and resettlement of IDPs in their hands today.
Yes, though IDP camps serve as temporary succour and shelters for Nigerians displaced from their home as a result of terrorism, I believe that whatever has a beginning also has an ending, so I’m calling for their closure and the imates resettled in their original homes . IDP camps must not be allowed to become huge breeding and recruitment bases for undesirable elements .
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State police:Delay implementation till after election
Years back, I had carried out a research on the American system of policing and concluded that state police was the way to go. My conviction was further reinforced when I travelled to America enroute Haiti for a peacemaking assignment. I was then a senior civilian staff with the Nigerian police force. Infact, I was the Managing Director of police newspaper, The Dawn, and also media adviser to the then Inspector- General of police, Mike Okiro. While in the US and Haiti I experienced the workability of a state police system and when I returned to Nigeria I wrote a column: “Give us this day a state police”. Since then, I have never relented in the campaign for the enthroment of state police in Nigeria as I have written a plethora of other columns on the same topic. Simply put, state police is a decentralized law enforcement agency operated by a regional or state government rather than a federal authority. It operates locally to handle regional security, traffic enforcement, and localized investigations, while working alongside (or replacing) federal police forces to address community-specific needs. As I write this column, from every indication the establishment of state police in Nigeria is a done deal. According to reports, President Bola Tinubu has written the Senate, forwarding to it a constitution alteration bill that seeks for the establishment of state police Services as part of efforts to reform Nigeria’s security architecture and the Senate has graciously passed it.
However, the speed at which the government is pushing the establishment of state police, less than a year to the next general election, looks curious and suspicious. The establishment of such a major security system needs patience and utmost carefulness given its sensitivity and national security implications. Any mistake or hiccup can be capitalized upon by political wolves who are ready to truncate the program. It is in the utmost interest of the Tinubu government not to rush the process to avoid loophole and also prevent political hawks who are already calculating how to destroy the process from hijacking it.It is therefore, my considered opinion, like many other concerned security observers, that the project should not be rushed as we are entering the election session. Instead, it’s final approval and application should be delayed till after the 2027 elections. It is better late than never and what is what doing is worth doing well!
Farewell, Pastor Mrs Elizabeth Effa
I commiserate with my General Overseer, Archbishop Effa Emmanuel and all members of World Royal City Church over the untimely demise of his beloved wife, Pastor Mrs Elizabeth Effa who was laid to rest on Saturday 28 June in Ikom, Cross river state.
May her gentle soul rest in the bosom of the lord.
