
Unfortunate Limitations
If only the Military could allow the IDPs’ living in Borno to sell some of their live stocks to survive, maybe they won’t be depending on the humanitarian agencies after all. I am inclined to write this piece, not because I was approached by an IDP but because of the untold hardship suffered by these vulnerable populations, which I have seen and witnessed in my travels around the North East region of the country and the northern part of Borno in particular. The number of livestock lying at the side of the road refusing/unable to stand as a result of the lack of grasses which usually serve as food to them makes the North east picture more and more blurring. An engagement of the villagers living in the communities concerned revealed a lot of the hardship been suffered by not just the community members but also livestock (Cattle), who because they cannot get grasses to eat have resorted to eating sand and soil around. I asked Mallam Abba Kaka one of the cattle owners in one of the communities and villages concerned why they allowed their cattle to die without selling them off when they can and he responded that, it was because the military had refused any body living in this part of the country to transport their livestock to Maiduguri for fear of doing that for the insurgents. This is not an attempt to fault the military but to make them seek for ways to better the living conditions of the IDPs’ while checkmating the means of livelihood of insurgents. It is good and enough to restrict trade in live stocks and aqua products in the northern part of Nigeria to cut the source of funding for the insurgents, but it is also better if we help them overcome the poverty staring them in the face stemming from the security agencies denying them the right of free passage through the conflict region to sell their wares and better their condition of living. Another matter of immense concern is the incessant blasts suffered by IDPs trying to cultivate surrounding farmlands proximate to their abodes, as a result of land mines buried by insurgents to wreck this face spate of havoc in the wake of the insurgency.
In the same vein, many of these IDPs would have also preferred the option of ploughing the surrounding farm lands around them, were it not for the incessant fatalities leading to death suffered by other community members who have been victims of Landmines. These and many other stories of denial by the military, inaccessible farm lands and increasing ambushes by the insurgents further bemoans the livelihood of IDPs.

This happenings alas leaves us with a few rhetoric’s;
1. Why should the police who is supposed to be saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and properties be laying ambush for drivers plying the roads of the federal republic of Nigeria, be exploiting the same drivers who are supposedly peasants and internally displaced persons who have nowhere else to run to asking them for “what did you bring for me from Maiduguri”?
2. Why should the military resort to depriving the IDPs in the LGAs of Borno an access to the available markets in the state capital to sell their livestock rather than watch them die of Malnourishment as a result of been confined to a particular territory?
3. Why should the same military deprive the fishing community in the likes of Baga and Damasak a fair deal in access to the market when they themselves are souring high in the fish trade?
4. The Civilian CJTF have lately been said to be a threat to the peace of the state if they are not empowered as the insurgency is gradually closing out, why would the government cum the military not seek for ways of engaging them as scouts and monitors to monitor the markets and keep an eye on the livestock business if the task is somewhat cumbersome, uninteresting or too big for the military to handle? This is one of the few ways they (CJTF) can be engaged in meaningful service to the nation therefore reducing the rate of employment.
5. Why would the GOVERNEMENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA fail to provide mosquito nets, blankets and basic shelter equipment for the military, for them to effectively perform their duties and responsibilities by manning the checkpoints in the volatile routes of the region?
If some of the above questions cannot be answered, then the reintegration strategies been employed by humanitarian agencies are not been adequately supplemented by all and sundry and reintegration in the north east Nigeria cannot be complete.
#NotAnotherNigerian
#helppromotereintegration
