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The Reign of Unholy Trinity in Borno State

Ibrahim Mohammed Lawal
9 min readJun 27, 2017

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By

Ibrahim Mohammed L

1.0 Introduction
Borno state came into existence on 03rd, February, 1976 after it was carved out from the North Eastern States. It has 27 LGAs and shares boundaries with Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Adamawa, Gombe and Yobe. The state has a population of about 5,925,668 and ranked 12 out of the 36 states of the country (Wikipedia, 2017). Agriculture and livestock farming is considered as the major activities of the residents.
The state has a GDP of $5.18B with a per capita income of $1,214 (Wikipedia, 2017). It has an acronym called Home of Peace which it has demonstrated in the past apart from the Maitasine crisis of 1980s and other minor religious and political crisis or riot, though they were all contained within a shortest period of time.
But what finally succeeded in threatening the peace of the state was the Boko Haram crisis which started in 2009 and this has generated a lot of issues or tensions in the state and that is why this paper is coined as The reign of unholy trinity in Borno state
2.0 Unholy Trinity in Borno State

The Unholy Trinity are as follows; Boko Haram, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) and illicit Wealth.
2.1 Boko Haram
Boko Haram is a nickname that was labeled to a militant group which in Hausa means "Western education is a sin, is a jihadist militant organization based in the northeast of Nigeria, North Cameroon and Niger. The group original name is “Congregation and People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad” (Jamā’a Ahl al-sunnah li-da’wa wa al-jihād). It is an Islamist movement which strongly opposes man-made laws and Westernization. It was founded by Mohammed Yusuf (Wikipedia, 2017).
This was a movement that started in 2001 but later gained momentum. The inability of the government to pro actively contained the group at their early stage lead to the crisis in 2009 despite reports. This crisis resulted to the death of about 20,000 citizens, over 1M displaced persons and properties (ies) worth $5.9b were lost (Vanguard newspaper, 2016). Though, the crisis still persists once in a while but not as compared from the period of 2009 to early 2015 when it was almost a daily affair. Boko Haram is like a chameleon as it has so many colorations such as religious, political, government and international colors. This makes it complex in understanding the whole dynamics of their activities.
By and large, the effect of the crisis is multidimensional such as economic, political, socio-economic effect on the state economy. From the economic view point; it has crippled the economic (business) activities of the state, inflation on the increase due to supply deficit, food insecurity, lack of investments, decline in the state revenue, lack of improvement in infrastructural development etc. The socio-economic implications is that it has lead to increase in crime rate, destruction in the population structure, unemployment, migration, illiteracy rate etc. Also, the political implications is that citizen were disenfranchise during election, political killings under the guise of insurgency etc.
Despite, all the negative impacts of this insurgence, some individuals within and outside the state are comfortable with the crisis to continue as they are busy siphoning tax payers money to their personal pocket under the disguise of fighting or funding the insurgence. For instance the Dasuki Arms deal of $2.1b etc. (See also https://icirnigeria.org/how-corrupt-army-commanders-undermine-fight-against-boko-haram) Thus, Boko Haram is considered as a franchise. This raise the questions of whether will the beneficiaries from this franchise allow the insurgency to end?

2.2 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
The activities of the insurgence has resulted to the displacement of over 1.7M residents in about 20 LGAs of the state while about 4M are faced with food insecurity. With this figure of IDPs, the state is now considered third position globally after Syria and Afghanistan (Economic Confidential,2016). The worrisome part of this insurgency is the increase number of internally displaced persons which are mostly women and children accompanied with different illness. They have become refugee in their own country.
This situation has become burdensome on the part of government because the state spends about N3.5M daily and about N600M on monthly basis. (Premium times, 2015; Terab, 2015). With this huge amount spent on IDPs, it does not commiserate with their welfare as there are cases of hunger, malnutrition and other illness. This is evidence from the UN Report that 120,000 children may die next year due to hunger in the IDP camps (Punchng, 2016). Also, there are also cases of HIV in the camp of about 3,800 new cases which is about 2.5%of the total victims in the state and 70 of them are children (Pulseng, 2017) etc.
Despite, this sympathetic situation been faced by the IDPs, some individuals are now using them as a franchise. They end up siphoning their foods and other items to the market and converting it to cash (see:www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/230350-borno-official-accomplice-jailed-stealing-rice-meant-idps.html/amp) and also for their personal use. At the end, these officials that public trust have been bestowed on them lives a luxury life style above their monthly salary while the IDPs lives in squalor. For instance the Rice & Saudi Dates Saga etc. But the question is how did these items get to the market? If there are no insider related conspiracies.
One fact remains that anybody that thinks he or she is benefiting from this act is busy deceiving him or herself and they should have at the back of their mind that they will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment because the wealth they thought they are amazing is like a blood money. Thus, the need for all stakeholders to be patriotic in handlings all resources of this IDPs judiciously and see them as their immediate family…..Love for others what you love for yourself.
2.3 Illicit Wealth:
The Boko Haram and the IDPs are now considered as a venture. i.e as a source of making money…. the so called Blood Money. The stakeholders involved want to take advantage of the situation to make money. Please note that in all the stakeholders, there is always a Judas and its the Judas that this piece will be referring to because their actions have beclouded the air. The stakeholders can be decomposed as thus;
a. Security Operatives: Well kudos to them for scarifying their lives for our safety. Though some of them are not patriotic because corruption have permeated the ranks & files of its various structures in the fight against insurgency. (See:https://icirnigeria.org/how-corrupt-army-commanders-undermine-fight-against-boko-haram/). Thus, they are using this insurgence to make money as they engage in diverting funds or short changing their juniors officers, trading in fish, beans etc, extortion of money from traders and commuters etc. (See:http://www.ends.ng/borno-residents-agitated-over-percieved-military-synergy-with-boko-haram/;https://www.blueprint.ng/buhari-berates-army-over insurgency/ ;http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/15/Africa/nigeria-military-families-boko-haram). Maiduguri is now like ATM because they are sure of making money from here at whatever cost rather than concentrating on their primary assignment in restoring peace. The question that comes to mind, is that those that are benefiting from this insurgence, will they allow it to end? Because when it ends, they will all be return back to their various destinations.
b. Government & Politicians: The Government or its officials is not spared in this because the Judas amongst them are pretending under this insurgence to siphon government funds and even food and other items in favour of the IDPs to their personal pockets (See: www.naija.com/amp/865036-boko-haram-survivors-risk-dying-starvation-borno-officials-divert-relief-materials.html;www.punchng.com/idps-borno-orders-probe-alledged-diversion-rice/amp/;www.sahararepoter.com/2017/01/02/military-detain-borno-officials-hiding-bokoharam-militants). This is a great sign of mistrust and they will be held accountable on the Day of Judgment. This warning signals can be viewed from the fact that despite all the huge sums spent on them (IDPs), donations received from well meaningful Nigerians within and outside the country, from NGOs, etc it does not commiserate with the welfare of this IDPs as they still live in hunger, poverty etc. This depicts that something is wrong somewhere? In addition, the politicians are also not saints as they are also benefiting directly or indirectly, thus the need for all to be patriotic since we just have one state called Borno irrespective of party differences and if they are no people who will they govern or who will vote for them in the future. Mind us, we shall all be called upon to account for our deeds on the day of judgement.
c. NGOs: The NGOs are also doing their best, Kudos to them but their best is still not enough considering the condition in which the IDPs are in and comparing it to the total number of NGOs that are present in the state (about 126 NGOs). This also creates a vacuum that something is also wrong. In the words of Gov. Shettima… The huge chunk of what they(NGOs) are budgeting for Borno goes to service overheads , The NGO are in the habit of using the name of Borno to make money and enrich themselves, we have become cash cow, People are smiling their ways to the bank from the agony of our people. This is unacceptable. (International Centre for Investigative Reporting, 2017). This implies that they only end up enriching themselves i.e living a luxury life at the expense of the IDPs. This further raise questions that will they also allow this situation to end since the insurgence is now their employer? In fact most of them go a long way to rent house at exhorbitant amount for up to more than 2 years. Even most of the banks can’t afford such.. Why? Is that how the situation will continue for those years? Consequently, if the insurgence ends, it is known that they will be expected to return back and all jobs will be lost because their donors will no longer fund them.
d. Residents (Civilians) of the State: The residents of the state have a major role to play in terms of assisting both the government and security operatives in giving relevant information of their (Boko Haram) activities. But the reverse is the case.(See: www.leaders.ng/boko-haram-borno-leaders-accused-of-prolonging-insurgency-by-nigerian-army/; www.sahararepoter.com/2017/01/02/military-detain-borno-officials-hiding-bokoharam-militants ).Some of these residents either conspires with the insurgents or security operatives (Judas amongst them) in as far as they are making money. i.e In as far they have their own share of the money, everybody should go to hell…This is not patriotism. Only few residents are truthful and patriotic to the security personal so as to bring an end to this insurgence. For instance, some individuals suppress key information’s that could be of assistance to security operatives while other gives the Boko Haram information, hide their weapons to enable them attack. In addition, some even conspire with these government officials to buy this items meant for the IDPs in exchange for cash and also engaging into trade with this categories of security operatives, knowing fully that its not a legitimate trade. This is inhuman, hence the need for all of us to be patriotic and to detest from the activities of this Judas amongst the security personnels, government officials etc whenever they come to them with such deals.
3.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, Boko Haram, IDPs and illicit wealth is considered as unholy trinity in the state because none of it have impacted positively on the entire lives of the people rather it worsen the situation of the state. Therefore, there is the need for all stakeholders to retrace their footsteps and be patriotic towards bringing an end to this insurgency.
Life is being lost, people are starving, homeless, do not have access to key facilities that would make life meaningful to them, different illness arising amongst them but others seems to take advantage of the situation to amaze wealth and they are being celebrated. This is uncalled for but mind you its a Blood Money and you must account for it on the day of judgment whether you like it or not.
Today is their turn, tomorrow might be yours or any of your relatives, and will you be happy if they are faced with such situation? Therefore….Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Lets all try and be patriotic towards bringing an end to these ugly phenomena called Boko Haram rather than making it a franchise.

References

Boko Haram

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Ibrahim Mohammed Lawal

Written by Ibrahim Mohammed Lawal

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