Whether by design, default, ignorance or otherwise, the indisputable bitter truth is that Borno State has unfortunately enrolled its membership of the dreaded club of Coronavirus. Sadly enough, this is an additional burden for a state already overwhelmed in human and material resources as a result of the lingering Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the state in particular for over a decade now.
Official statistics released about four years back showed that Borno alone, of the ten billion dollars’ worth of infrastructure destroyed by the insurgents in the Northeast, accounts for about seven billion dollars. This is besides human fatalities.
However, what informed this piece or article is the management and fate of the IDPs Camp in Borno in the light of the latest intrusion of the state by the coronavirus pandemic.
Even before the entry of Covid-19 into the state, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum had banned all visitors to over a dozen IDPs camps across the state. Announcing the ban on visitors to the camps earlier in Maiduguri, Professor Zulum said “visitors’ restrictions, was an adopted strategy of state government to contains outbreaks of global deadly COVID-19 that has claimed thousands of lives.”
He pointed out that the IDPs and their camps are vulnerable and at high risk of contracting the virus if such measures were not taken.
“This move was part of administration’s strategy to containing the outbreak of the virus in IDP camps and other parts of state,” said the governor.
Also speaking in the same vein, the Chairperson of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Hajiya Yabawa Kolo, who is also a member of COVID-19 response team, said the government took the decision to ban visitors to the camps as one of the strategies to prevent the importation of the virus into the camps. “This measure becomes necessary as some of the neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon have cases of COVID-19.”
While lamenting porous borders, Yabawa said, “Despite the closure of land borders by the neighbouring countries, there was still influx of IDPs into the state.”
She, therefore, directed all camp managers from Gamboru/Ngala, Damasak, Kala/Balge, Banki, Bama and Monguno not to accept IDPs from any of the neighbouring countries into their camps.
She went on, “We know we have a lot of threat around us following sighting of suspected cases of the virus in Cameroon and Chad and we have some border towns very close to those countries.
“We do not want to go to the issue of response because even in developed countries, it is difficult for them to contain this pandemic.
“At our own level, we are positioning ourselves to see how best we can stop the virus from transmitting in the state.“
The IDPs camps remain the most vulnerable and fragile points of attack by the coronavirus (Covid 19) due among others to heavy varied history of known and unknown ailments in the camps. Therefore, any outbreak of disease or infection like the coronavirus calls for serious concern as this portends a calamity of unimaginable proportion.
Unfortunately, of the over two million IDPs provoked by the insurgency in the Northeast, about 80% of the number is from Borno State, the epicentre of the terror war.
Now that the dreaded virus has become our interloper, efforts must be redoubled to secure the safety of all the camps concerned.
Professor Zulum and his aides must keep their ears to the ground and eyes wide open to all activities in and out of the camps. Vigilance is the price of liberty. The activities of camp managers, members of the security agencies and other related personnel in the management of the camps must be properly monitored to ensure strict adherence to the rules.
There is need to enlighten the IDPs of the essence of obeying the rules and cooperating with the officials for their safety and that of the larger society. The IDPs camp in relation to the Covid-19 should be likened to a keg of gunpowder that must never be allowed to explode because of the obvious incalculable damage it is capable of doing.
Recall that as a preventive measure, Governor Zulum had weeks back set up a High Powered Multi-stakeholders Response Team of technocrats, astute administrators, religious and humanitarian leaders headed by the Deputy Governor, Umar Kadafur, to advise the government on all matters relating to Covid-19.
Victor Izekor is a journalist and public affairs analyst and writes from Maiduguri at victorizekor@gmail.com
