Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, who was this week’s guest at the Presidential Communication Team briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, spoke on internal security, relocation of IDPs and collaborations between the state and the Federal Government at the state house in Abuja.
Preamble
First and foremost, I want to give you an insight of what has happened in Borno State before, which is very important, then I will delve into the current situation in Borno State, What we have achieved and others.
This insurgency has triggered acute humanitarian and post-displacement crisis with devastating social and economic impact on the population, further deepening fragility and poverty in the Northeast region.
The outcome of the recovery and peace building assessment by the World Bank, EU and the UN, revealed that the total sum of our $6.9 billion was lost as a result of the insurgency in the entire Northeastern states; out of this, Borno State accounts for over two third percent. The insurgents have destroyed about 5000 classrooms in Borno State; about 800 municipal buildings were destroyed, comprising of local government Secretariats, prisons, traditional rulers buildings, among others. They destroyed about 713 energy distribution lines. Furthermore, they destroyed about 1,600 water sources. In addition to this one, we have a total number of 49,311 widows and about 49,974 orphans. These are official figures, the unofficial figures are more than this. Before then, out of 27 local governments that we have in Borno State, at a time, about 22 of local governments were under the control of Boko Haram insurgents.
In Borno State again, that was the time we have only one access to road to Maiduguri which is from Kano to Maiduguri. The road between Maiduguri to Gambua was closed, the road between Maiduguri to Goza was closed, the road between Maiduguri to Ngana was close, the road between Maiduguri Mungonu, Damaruru were all closed. We were left with only one major road. The magnitude of the destructions was so scary.
Then what is the status now in Borno State?
Today, the gradual return of peace and a marked reduction of cases of insecurity in Borno State, and major parts of the Northeastern region have been attributed to the commitment and collaboration from the part of the state and Federal Government. I want to say something categorically clear on that. One of the major reasons why we have been succeeding in the Northeast in particular in Borno State, is because of one major fundamental thing. There was never a time I requested to see Mr. President and I was denied access. This is something very important. On landing in Abuja, whenever I had similar security situations in Borno State within the next 10 to 15 minutes, I will have access to Mr. President. So, this has contributed a lot in ensuring gradual return of peace and stability of Borno State.
Significant amount of resources has been injected into the implementation of the security strategies, financial, material logistics and motivational. The state has shown a great commitment in the reallocation of internally displaced persons with planning activities, picking up in most parts of the state. It is worthy of note that with the recent mass surrendering of Boko Haram insurgents, normalcy is expected to be in the most part of the Northeastern region in no distant time. We have to understand the nexus between peace, security and development. Once there is no peace, there is no security; once there is no security, there’s no development. The level of achievement that we had in Borno State would never be feasible without the enabling environment. For example, the number of houses that we built in Borno State from 2015 to date needs not be emphasized, because I was the commissioner for reconstruction, rehabilitation and resettlement. Under the supervision of my ministry, we rehabilitated up to 50,000 houses.
Again, the status now is that the major roads were now opened. The roads between Maiduguri to Damaturu was opened; the road from Maiduguri to Mungonu was opened; the road between Maiduguri to Goza is opened. Just two months ago, we completely reopened one of our biggest routes, which is Banki Bama road; this road you pass through up to Cameroon.
I was in Banki few months ago, I hope you noticed my presence in the market at 12 midnight in Banki. This wasn’t possible before. Again, recently we have opened another market in Damatta, we have opened another market in Gunyon. Mungonu market is also opened. Most importantly, the relocation of the internally displaced persons, need not be overemphasized. These are all as a result of milestone achievements recorded in the areas of security in Borno State. Yes, I am not saying that the security challenges is over. But this would not have been possible without effective collaboration and synergy between the government and the Federal Government agencies. Honestly speaking, the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the police, the DSS and others are giving the desired collaboration to the government of Borno State.
We are supporting them how? First effort that we made in securing Borno State is through intelligence sharing, which is very important. The community participation is very important, the community driven approach of reestablishing peace in Borno State has yielded positive results.
For instance, we have the district heads, the Shehu of Borno and other royal highnesses, our local intelligence who normally provide feedback mechanism to the governor, to the military, with a view to addressing the lingering security situation in the state. The second effort that we have been making that ensures peace in Borno State, is continuous provision of logistics through the Nigerian Armed Forces to the other security agencies.
So this is the status now. With the strong support and commitment of the government we have achieved the following: Restoration of significant major peace and reduced incidence of the campaign of violence. We have seen in Borno State that the incidences of bomb attack have been reduced drastically. Before then on a daily basis, we have been witnessing bombings throughout Borno State. But these have been reduced by about 80 per cent if not more than 90 per cent.
Reconstruction of lives and livelihoods embarked on has resulted in 5,000 physical infrastructure built by the state and Federal Government. Partnership with the international community has helped to strengthen government efforts. We partner with international organizations, yes, sometimes we differ in our own understandings, but most importantly, UN agencies and some international organizations and local organizations have given great support to the government of Borno State, because we have what we call a return strategy. Higher level Committee headed by the Deputy Governor membership cuts across different strata, vertical and horizontal. Representatives of NEMA representative of North East Development Commission, DSS and other security agencies are also included.
So, the role and responsibility of this agency is to ensure that the activities that are ongoing in Borno State are coordinated; return of internally displaced persons back to their places of origin where we can guarantee peace, continuous support for the security forces and establishment of civilian vigilantes and hunters.
Yes, we strengthen the resilience of the community, the only way you can defeat insurgents is to ensure that the resilience of the community is being strengthened. This is something that we did. Whether we like it or not, some of the root causes of the insurgency are not limited to endemic poverty, illiteracy, increasing infrastructure deficit, climate vulnerabilities, and increased poverty. How did this thing happen? Bad governance. Establishing good governance is a sine qua non to ensuring peace building, social cohesion in any state of the federation.
Again, security is everybody’s business. You cannot just say it’s only the Federal Government that can provide security. Sub national governments are also very important. Local governments are also very important. You have seen, how many times I was attacked. Many times but if you’re not resilient enough, you can’t.
A lot of information has been passing that the governor of Borno Stete has decided to close many internally displaced persons camps and many development and non-governmental organizations.
It’s not true. The reality on ground is that, there is increasing prostitution in internally displaced persons camps; there’s increasing drug abuse in the internally displaced persons camps; there is increasing procreation without care in the IDP camps, there is increasing gangsterism in the IDPs camp.
Recently, you heard what has happened in Borno State, an aid worker raped an internally displaced person and that eventually led to her death. Such incidences are growing in a serious geometrical ratio. We have a very serious problem. Right now, we have more than 500,000 internally displaced persons in Mungonu, we have over 300,000 in Gara local government, about 250,000 internally displaced persons in Goza with dwindling food supply from the international organizations. What will happen at a later date? That is why the government of Borno State under my distinguished leadership with the support of the Federal Government, with the support of the Armed Forces decided to relocate people to their ancestral homes or to local government headquarters in a dignified manner. What I mean by in the dignified manner is under the Kampala Convention. We have never forced any IDP to relocate but we are trying to provide means of livelihood for them. Continuous dependence on handouts from non-governmental organisations is not sustainable. And that was why we opened Baga. Baga is about 250 kilometers from Maiduguri.
I went as far as Doro, to the shores of Lake Chad. Hitherto, the shores of Lake Chad provide the opportunities to about 10 million people. The soil is rich in Aruban soil, but nutrients are not a limiting factor there. Water is the limiting factor there. Last year, we resettled people back in Baga. It’s now been about one and a half years; nothing has happened to them. But on my way to Baga, 30 of my policemen were killed. When I was in Baga, I was attacked, but I became resilient. Because food insecurity is the worst form of insecurity. If people will not have the opportunity to produce, insurgency will never end in Nigeria. Believe me sincerely, I’m not trying to sell myself; if not because of the support from the Almighty Allah that we receive, if not, because we develop the resilience of the community, if not because I developed resilience, and faced the risks, by now, many parts of Nigeria could have been taken over because about 1.5 million or 2 million people in Borno are lying idle and having no access to food. What does it mean, they will join ISWAP, they will join Boko Haram. So we created the enabling environment for people to go and farm. This is the only alternative. And the people are yearning to go back home.
One of the requests of the population during my electioneering campaign was that they should be given the opportunity for them to go back home. Notwithstanding their own request, we refused, because in 2019, in the year 2020, we felt the security situation is not palatable, to allow for their return until in 2021. Strengthening of regional dialogue and synergy with neighbouring nations; you have seen that I have gone to the Republic of Chad within the last two years. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve been there up to 10 times. And normally, I used to go by road to the Republic of Niger, to the Republic of Cameroon, the Republic of Chad, I go by road as most of the times.
Provision of shelters and rehabilitation of the vulnerable including service delivery directly to beneficiaries. You have seen me providing food and non food items directly because monitoring and evaluation are very essential for any government to succeed. Why did people vote for me? I can’t say because I’m the governor of Borno State I will sit down in an office with air condition while over 2 million Borno State indigenes, are in a very bad shape. So, there’s nothing wrong for a governor to go to local government areas. I have been sitting outside sometimes not even inside rooms.
So, these are some of the successes that we have recorded. Functional primary and secondary facilities.
We built many primary schools; whether we like it or not, there is a need for us to address the lingering problem of infrastructure. Education is key. How many schools have been built? We built about 25 mega schools that have the carrying capacity; none of the schools has carrying capacity of less than 2000. In addition to this one, we rehabilitated hundreds of schools, improved access to education, especially technical and vocational education. I’ve been saying time without numbers, that two of the major problems that we’re having in Nigeria, are the mismatch between the products of our schools and the labour market, which is very important. And then two, the mismatch between our institutions and the industries are very critical issues that we need to understand. So, the government of Borno State decided to build a state of the art facilities school and provide state of the art facilities in some vocational training centers. I have built about six technical schools. I have stopped building secondary schools.
There are a lot of things happening in Nigeria; you can see some organizations I don’t want to mention names, that are training carpenters in two weeks, giving them certificates; Electricians in 10 days, tailors in three weeks. Nigeria will never become a great nation unless we go back to the drawing board.
So, Borno State Government decided to establish sustainable technical and vocational education. You can go and see what is going on; right now, I’m building more. Again, support economic growth through non-interest grant with SMEs and farm inputs for farmers; we have been providing it. As I told you, we resettled more than 18 communities. Nothing has happened to all these communities that we resettled from the beginning to date. This is an indication that we are achieving a lot. We developed a 25 year development plan and 10-year strategic transformation initiative, that is guiding our investment and impacting on progress. We built secured competitive agribusiness and commercial hub anchored on prosperous, dignified people and sustained development. In 10 years, we plan to have a self-reliant Borno with over 70 per cent productive population by 2030.
Under this administration, the Federal Government has provided 10,000 housing to Borno State. Let me also use this opportunity to commend the efforts of NEMA, custom services, CACOVID committee, North East Development commission and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs in providing food and non food items to all IDPs. A Huge quantum of food has been delivered to the people of the state.
Stability is very important. Again, as I told you, we built about 432 clusters and 242 ward facilities. We have done a lot. Within the last two years, we provided over 560 projects. We recruited 1,800 health personnel, constructed 24 new roads, including 18 existing roads for rehabilitation. Most importantly, that’s something that this administration did to Borno State that will go a long way in reducing the insurgency. The Federal Government has approved for the construction of Bama Banki road, Dukwa Gamboranga road; these two major roads can improve the economic well being of the people under the tax credit scheme. Dangote will do it.
We’ve drilled about 779 boreholes, all the figures that I am saying, if anybody has any iota of doubt, we are ready to provide the coordinates of these projects that we did. Again in farming communities, area under cultivation increased by about 700 percent. Then, the most important thing that I want you to understand is this; this farming activity is very important. When we leave from Maiduguri now to Baga, you will see people farming. We embark on serious irrigation activities supporting the farmers. We supported nothing fewer than 20,000 heads of household by providing them with irrigation equipments.
All these achievements could never have been feasible without the support of the federal government, Nigerian armed forces. We remain very grateful to them.
Let me use this opportunity to also mention one very important thing. The committee that was inaugurated by Mr. President yesterday, is one of the most important committee. Committee on repatriation and resettlement of internally displaced persons. This committee will also look into the management of defectors. This committee is headed by the Vice President, while I am the Vice Chair.
Membership is drawn from the federal Organisation especially; governors of Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe states are also included. So, again, we are providing houses to the returnees, food and condiments are provided and other members of the family will be provided with start up packages, married women will also be provided with packages.
For those voluntarily returning, where they have to access farmland will be provided also. Children will be enrolled back to school, stores and shops will be allocated to community traders, while some are relocated to the family and safe environment; they will not be received back to the camps. Families should be encouraged to adopt orphans from the same social cultural communities.
What are the challenges you are having?
All what I have said now, would never have been possible without the support of the government. But notwithstanding all the contributions of the federal government, we still have some challenges. One, I said it before, a growing number of ISWAP in some parts of the state is a matter of great concern to everybody. Why? On the shores of Lake Chad, again in southern Borno State. Luckily enough, I was told there was Dallas military deployment yesterday to Southern Borno to fight the insurgents in the Tudun Katarangwa.
But I think this is an early warning system. We shouldn’t allow ISWAP to grow. ISWAP are more sophisticated, more funded and they’re more educated. And we shall do everything possible to defeat ISWAP. Otherwise, what Boko Haram did will be a child’s play. This is an early warning system the Nigerian Army has to re-strategise and defeat ISWAP. ISWAP will be a threat to the entire nation. Because of the proximity of Sub Saharan Africa, they are coming from Libya and others resettling here.
And then, whether we like it or not, a few days ago, I spoke about two local governments that are still not occupied by the human population. I think that there are some certain misunderstandings. Some say that two local governments are under the control of Boko Haram, no. Two local governments are not occupied by the human population. But whether we like it or not, it is right because if two local governments are not occupied, what does it mean? It means the capacity is not there to protect this human population to go to this local government areas. But we’re working with the Nigerian army to ensure immediate resettlement of people to Malam Fatori, which is the headquarters of Abadam local government. And gain, Ogunbaden headquarters of Mainari local government. We are not saying that these two local governments are under their control, but these two local governments are not under human occupation. We need support from the Federal Government to support the relocation of these people to these local government areas. This committee that has been constituted by the Federal Government, will look into these matters among others.
We want clearance of the shores of Lake Chad. Again, in conclusion, while the challenge of insecurity is being solved gradually, it is not yet over. I have said time without numbers that in addition to what we are doing, there is a need for the government to rethink and look into the possibility of hiring mercenaries. I have said it times without numbers, there’s nothing wrong. America, Britain and many more countries that are stronger than Nigeria, who used to seek support outside, there’s nothing wrong because this problem has been compounded. And it’s not easy for us to solve the security challenges that we’re having now. While Nigeria is providing a lot of things, the Federal Government is buying equipment, there is the need for us to seek support from external agencies to defeat these insurgents once and for all before the matter reaches other parts of the nation. This is very important, whether we like it or not, we have an existing gap that we need to fill and this gap by now cannot be filled without external support.
One very serious challenge that we have, our recruitment process has to look into. Yes, you can just say recruitment for the army, collecting notes from governors, ministers and others and the people are keying in. As long as we are not willing to sanitize our recruitment procedures to the armed forces, police, SSS and others, we will not get the right people. This is something that needs to be done. Truth is better.
And then funding is critical. Yes, funding to our military. Let us investigate how much has been trickled down. The commanding officers are important, procurement processes are also very important. Then stronger solidarity among the security forces and sustained campaigns needed to finish up the remnants of the insurgents in the fringes of the North East is very important. The resettlement needs to go hand in hand with livelihood support; more resources needed to do more for the people. Greater understanding required of the security forces to support protection, action in places of resettlement and all over Borno. Last but not the least, we must not allow the 2023 general elections to shift our attention completely away from the focus and restoration of peace in the North East and indeed other parts of the nation.
You expose yourself to a lot of risks. What if you lose your life?
You have to think of something very important: Borno State has a population of about 7 million displaced people. The seven million displaced people are a matter of great concern to me. I’ve benefited a lot from public institutions, primary school and secondary school universities and others and I was born and brought up in the village. And I have seen how people of Borno State came out and mass voted for me during the election. And I was overwhelmed. Yes, I risk my life. But the most important thing is that a single life is not as important as millions of lives. My only consolation is that the people of Borno State have so much love for me. They have a lot of trust in me.
Well, I saw them praying for me, passing by; I used to shed tears. My younger brothers and sisters are living in the village, in a traumatized society. You haven’t seen them. In the Bama local government, my hometown, in a day 100 were killed. I was there. It took us about 12 hours for us to bury them. Even burying them was a problem for us. That was in the year 2014. I felt it is a service to humanity. And again, I am true Muslim, I believe in destiny. That’s something that is also encouraging me, it is impossible to question the destiny of God. No matter how strong I am, no matter how weak I am, I will not die until the time comes. So the best thing that I could do for my people before I die is to serve them well and I hope somebody will come and take over from where I stop. Thank you very much.
The president kicked against mercenaries, are you saying you are against the President?
Well, government is not static. Government is dynamic. I have no divergent views with Mr. President. He can say something depending upon the situation at that particular time. He may change his mind, that does not mean anything. This is my own opinion. That does not mean I have any divergent views with Mr. president.