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Home Away (Part Two)

By Ajibola Amzat
06 October 2015   |   2:01 am
For many, government is already doing enough by providing them shelter and food. “Many of them have never experienced the existence of government in their community since they were born,” says Dr. Ibrahim Muhammad.

Dalori-12--CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY

Meal time, happy time

For many, government is already doing enough by providing them shelter and food. After all, government is a strange phenomenon in their villages. “Many of them have never experienced the existence of government in their community since they were born,” says the head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Maiduguri, Dr. Ibrahim Muhammad who had conducted researches in different communities in Borno states.

So while the cooking lasts, some of the children circle around the kitchen like vultures waiting for the final falls of a prey. When meal is finally ready, and the kitchen attendants make announcement, a locust of children swam closer towards the kitchen to take their portion, which is always dished with a rusty shovel on wide trays.

home-2God helps anyone who lags behind at this critical moment for the food disappear in seconds. The children would then retreat with a steaming scoop in their small palms, which they hurriedly swallow. This is followed by prolonged lick of fingers. They lick their fingers longer than the time they spend eating their portion. In the end, they rub their damp palms on dusty hairs, and then go back to play until the next meal is ready. In the struggle for food, many are not lucky to get a grab; those ones instead settle for the empty greasy tray and lick it dry. The oily crumbs are their own ration for that time.

The adult IDPs instead have their own ration served in buckets and they quietly go back to their tents to share it in morsels. The sight of old men and women sharing a mess of rice pottage in small portion is no less pitiable than that of their children. But the people seem to have accepted their fate.
The children of Dalori camp also look like they need a hard washing from head to toe. Some of them look like they just escaped from a muckheap. Though Maiduguri is a fly-infested city, the swarthy and blighted skin of most children attracts more flies. These flies form a close ally with the children, so that when they are sleeping, walking or eating, flies are never far away. The unhygienic culture of most of the townsfolk does not help matters. Children in Dalori camp regardless of their age were seen playing around with sand or any filth within reach.

Old habit dies hard
Relief agencies have provided basic facilities such as latrines, bathroom and water in the camp. Each day, a water tanker does several rounds to ensure all day long water supply. But water still runs dry in the tap because of the huge population Meal-time-it is meant to serve. Also, NGOs engage in awareness campaign to promote good hygiene and environmental sanitation in the camp, yet sanitation problem persists. Each morning, the minders of the camp wake up to see that someone has either defecated inside the public bathroom or on the open field instead of using the latrine. Living style of many families inside Dalori poses serious health challenges to the entire populace. Yet not many of the IDPs see these unhygienic practices as a huge contributory factor to the poor wellbeing in the camp.

A UNICEF officer resident in Maiduguri said it would take time for the IDPs to change their old ways. According to him, many of them lived in the village all their lives where people answer the call of nature inside the bush. “Even if you build them a modern toilet facility, these people would still prefer to do their defecation their own way. That is the reason we built latrines instead of toilets, but even the use of latrines is strange to them. But we must spend time to educate them,” he says. This explanation illustrates the backwardness of certain communities in Nigeria, and more. It also shows the failure of government in the northern region, which many stakeholders often point at.

home-16Western education is no haram
At a relic serving as a school building in Dalori, children aged between 6 and 14 years old gather in groups. Each of them carries a blue back bag with “UNICEF” inscription at the back. Given the way they carry the bags, it appears they feel proud to be in school.
While waiting for their teachers to resume work, twelve of the pupils cluster around a blackboard outside the classrooms, practicing alphabets taught them at the previous class. They sit on bare floor. Others inside the classroom can be heard chorusing nursery rhymes. The rest simply sit idle watching their mates as they have fun.

Few minutes to nine o ‘clock, a slender woman of average height, Sanda Yafati, passes by and disappears into the school building. She is the headmistress of the ad hoc elementary school, and one of the handful teachers that escaped deadly attack of Boko Haram sect from Bama. Yafati is a cheerful woman, full of energy, and very compassionate. A mother of six, she is no nonsense and knows how to handle children in difficult situation such as those in IDP camps. The word goes round that the headmistress is around, and the pupils start going into their classes. Other teachers come in too, and the business of the day begins in earnest. Her presence simply gets the school going.

“Many of these children are orphans, while majority of them have only lost their fathers” says Mrs Yafati. One of them is Hadiza Akura whose father was killed just as he was trying to find a hiding place. Villagers later brought home his corpse, head severed. His body was unrecognisable but for the dress he wore before he ran out of the house that morning,” the 8-year- old Hadiza narrates.

Dalori-24-She says her two uncles were also not spared. The tragic story is the same for Mama Gana, 6, Abba Kalli, 8, and hundreds of other pupils in Dalori school.

Notwithstanding, the children seem to have accepted their fate and are moving on with their lives. According to the headmistress, about four thousand pupils have been registered in the schools already. Seeing their peers coming to school everyday, many more children are getting inspired to come. And with intensified awareness campaign by donor agencies such as UNICEF, more parents are eager to send their children to school. “School is very important. I want my children to go to school so that they can become responsible and to become important person in the society,” says Mrs. Jugudum Sulaiman whose two daughters are among the newly enrolled at the Dalori Primary School.

Mrs. Yafati is particularly excited at this trend knowing that many of the children, who had never been to any school in Bama before they came to Dalori, now show great interest in Western education. The school started five months ago with 30 pupils, now the population has grown to 3775. Yet, she is worried that many of these children may not be able to access quality education because of factors beyond her control, namely the scarcity of resources.

Worse still, some of the pupils cannot even speak coherently because of the trauma they went through. “You talk to them and they just continue to look at you.” This situation puts more pressure on Mrs. Yafati and her staff.

At present there are about 64 teachers and 50 volunteers, there are also some reading materials donated by relief organisations such as International Centre for Islamic Culture and Education, UNICEF, and others. Even Universal basic Education (UBE) recently provided 200 chairs and benches, but there are no adequate classrooms. Available classrooms can only accommodate 200 pupils or thereabout. Also, majority of teachers don’t come to camp everyday because of the security situation in the town. Apart from the security issues, most volunteers come only when they can afford to come since they are not on any payroll. And there are no teaching staff that can handle cases of traumatised children. This situation makes the school project at Dalori an awkward undertaking, and a source of constant frustration for Mrs. Yafati.

Enemies within
Male IDPs at Dalorie are a brooding lot. Often time they wear long faces and speak in low tones as if they anticipate further Boko Haram attack. Behind their dark exterior is a sense of betrayal for their kinsmen who joined Boko Haram sect, and later became the villains that torment the townsfolk.

“Many of these kids who were killing and destroying everything are our sons. How does one explain that the boy you see everyday in the neighbourhood, and that you sometimes lend a helping hand, was the one that killed members of your family and led the group that set your house ablaze,” says Baba Abdullahi.

According to the retired police officer, Boko Haram sect operates with a method. They come into a community, forcefully conscript the youths, entice some with monetary reward and indoctrinate them to accept their teaching of Islam, eventually these youths become even more murderous than their tutors. “But If the military had engaged these criminals early enough, we would not be in this situation,” he reasons. This is a general sentiment among the victims of Boko Haram attack.

But a military officer at one of the many checkpoints in Maiduguri expressed a different opinion regarding the widespread influence of the sect. Before the terror group started targeting the civilians, they used to kill only security agents through the support of the local community, he says. “The tide only turned against them when the sect began indiscriminate killings.”

The submission of the soldier reinforces the popular narrative of how Boko Haram started in Borno state.

Ustaz Muhammed Yusuf –led Jama’atul Ahlus Suna Lid Da’awatis Jihad antagonised the social order sustained by the political leadership in the North. And so they attacked every agent of the state, mostly the police and the army. The security men hit them back including “their civilian collaborators”. Many innocent citizens get killed in the relentless reprisal. The citizens therefore had no option than to join force with the security agencies to drive the group out of Maiduguri. The sect in turn, turns the heat against the civilian populace. The military officer is of the view that, the activities of the sect would have been long contained if they had not enjoyed tacit support of the people.

Myth about Boko Haram
It is not true to say Boko Haram people are Moslems, says deputy director at Universal Basic Education in Borno, Ali Grema. “They are not,” he stressed. As someone who is a practicing Muslim and had experienced terror of Boko Haram, his words could not be taken lightly.

“They visit people in their homes and dispose them of their property under gun point. And several times, they kill their victim even after the person has surrendered his valuables.”

Continuing, he says: “When they visited my house, they broke my jaw, collected my savings and personal effects like phone and laptop. In the case of my friend, they simply ordered him on the phone to sell his car and told him to meet them somewhere with the proceeds. To refuse is suicidal. So my friend complied and took the proceeds to them at the appointed place. He was strongly warned not to look back while handing the money over, and that was what he did. My friend and I are few of the lucky ones. Not many lived to tell the story of Boko Haram visit to their homes.”

The experience of people like Grema shows that it is not only religious ideology that drives the terror of Boko Haram. “In fact some Boko Haram members cannot read Quran,” says Grema.

If tomorrow comes
Hopelessness is palpable in Dalori Camp. In spite of the intervention by relief agencies and the government contribution to mitigate misery, there is no concrete plan for rehabilitation. “That will happen when the issue of insurgency is overcome,” says the NEMA Zonal Coordinator, Muhammed Kanar. But while the government continues to find solution to the problem of insurgency in the Northeast, the time is ticking.

Certainly, IDPs know they will not live in the camp forever. They know that other interests will capture government’s attention; and that donors fatigue will later set in. What they do not know however is where they will go to after leaving the camp that will be safe. Of course there are those who would like to go back to Bama if the town is free of Boko Haram insurgency.

As it appears, a greater disaster looms if effective and sincere measures are not put in place to rehabilitate the victims of Boko Haram insurgency and redeem the future of the children

The people of Bama are predominantly farmers, and their land is in Bama, so their choices where to reside are limited. “We would like to go back to our farm. We want to go home,” says one of the IDPs, Malam Hamisu. But the people are also wary of going back home only to get killed by those from whom they ran away.

For someone like Baba Abdullahi, Bama is home. It matters a little that his only house in Bama is already razed down together with his belongings and that of his two wives. “I am too old to be a sojourner in another place. I have served in different parts of the country as a police officer; I do not want to go elsewhere again. I will like to live my last days in Bama. But we are too afraid to go back.”

Baba Abdullahi is not the only one longing to go home. Ali and his two sisters also want to go back home. They think they will be fine living with relatives or friends of their parents who have been playing roles of foster parents for them at the camp. But they wish they could continue with school in Bama without someone kidnapping them on the way to Islamiyyat.

The story is the same for Mrs. Mohammed. She wants to go back if the sect members are driven away from Bama. Before that happens, she wants to find a cleaner job in Maiduguri so that she can be able to provide for her two daughters. “The camp only provides food, but children need more than just food,” she says.

While most IDPs appear to prefer to go home, Bama is the last place Gambo wants to return. It is a place of hunting dark memories. She says she doesn’t want to see Bama again. Rather she wants to go to Malonfashi in Katsina, the native town of her father. There is a distant uncle there. She hopes she could find him and other relatives that her father left behind many years ago.

Most importantly, she wants to go to school and acquire Western education, a dream that was near impossible when her father was alive. For her late father, only Islamic education is good enough especially for female children. And none of her father’s 12 children could controvert that position. Now that the old man is no more, she desires to pursue her secret dream. But if that does not happen, she says she will do everything to send Abdul Kadir to school. For Gambo, only her son’s education is not negotiable. “I want him to live a good life,” she says, almost inaudibly, yet her voice was firm enough to leave no doubt about her resolve.

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