The Senate’s Noble Quest for Succour for North-East

Anguish, pity, and helplessness gnawed at my heart as I waded through the multitudes of man-made human suffering at the various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) centres in Adamawa with the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and other members of the Senate delegation on August 5, 2015.

This is just as Kofi Awoonor’s “Songs of Sorrow” also kept reverberating in my ears as we drove back to town.  Incidentally, the late Ghanaian poet whose lines best capture the state of ruins and human misery in the North-East died in the 2013 attack by the Al-Shabaab on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya.

Few days after the Adamawa trip, images of men, women, children, and infants in state of hopelessness still drift past my mind’s eye. I see forlorn figures wondering how on earth they got to this sorry state, wondering if their sufferings would ever end, and if they would ever be able to return to their homes again.  Yes, even with all the efforts by government and international agencies to quarter them, the truth is that there is no place like home, especially for Africans known to be so attached to their homes and the graves of their ancestors.

Although these ones are counted lucky to have escaped from the furnace of insurgency alive, yet there is no doubt that some of them would sometimes wonder if life is indeed worth living after all. For instance, imagine a man or a woman that lost his or her whole family members or the 54 unaccompanied children at the IDPs centre at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation centre in Damare, Jimeta Yola. Bereft of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunties, only God knows the raging turmoil in their young minds.

Ironically, while the military forces have recovered most of the hitherto occupied towns, returning home is even more challenging than staying in the IDPs camps as fallen fences, razed homes, destroyed bridges, desolate farmlands, await them. The North East Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sa’ad Bello, actually told the delegation that 87 percent of the IDPs in Damare were willingly go home. But, which home do they return to? They are like Kofi Awoonor standing in the middle of nowhere. If they turn here, the rain beats them; if they turn there, the sun burns them. Something has happened to them- things so great they can no longer weep.

The elders have no sons to fire the gun or daughters to wail when they die. They have practically wandered on the wilderness of anguish and calamities where the sharp stumps cut as keen as knives. Death and misery have made war upon their houses- only broken fences stand as the trees in the fence have been eaten by termites. The crows and vultures hover always above their desolate habitats, while strangers walk over their portions.

Barely clothed and hoarded in overcrowded classrooms and tents that hardly protect them from the vagaries of nature, it could be imagined the platitude and gloom life doles out to them daily.

Conversely, it could be imagined against this backdrop the magnitude of hope that the visit by the Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led seven-man Senate delegation made up of the Senate Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Ibn Na’Alla; Senator George Sekibo, Senator Binta Garba, Senator Bashir Marafa, Senator Ahmed Abubakar, and Senator Sani Abubakar Danladi restored to them.  By the way, Senator Binta is a man-woman so popular among her people. I leave it at that.

Senator Ekweremadu’s words were like drops of water on a thirsty, scorched piece of earth. He said: “We have come to bring you a message of hope- hope that insurgency will end in our country soon, hope that this is not your portion in life, and hope that you will soon return to your homes to live your normal lives again.

“We had highly useful and incisive discussions with the Service Chiefs on Tuesday. I can assure you that the Senate and indeed the Federal Government are determined to restore lasting peace and security to every part of the North- East.  Once we return to Abuja, we will mobilise resources as a body and send support to you. We will also ensure that adequate budgetary provisions and funds are made available to government to fix your schools, to fix your bridges, to fix your hospitals, and rehabilitate your homes so that you can live your normal lives. We must do these because these are your entitlements as citizens”.

He exhorted the young not to lose hope as they could still rise above their present challenges to achieve their dreams. “Insurgency is a temporal setback as these camps cannot be the burial ground of your dreams”, he added
Meanwhile, it would also be recalled that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki had earlier visited IDPs camps in Borno State on Monday, August 3, 2015. These recent visits demonstrate why the legislature is often referred to as the people’s arm of government.

While it is good to lament the plights of Nigerians in the North-East in the comfort of the legislative Chambers, visiting the war zones to see things for themselves was no doubt a demonstration of true representation and more purposeful and empathetic leadership. Although the media have done well in relaying the ugly events in the North-East, nothing gives a fuller picture of   the magnitude of disaster and human suffering in that region like seeing for yourself or hearing from the horse’s mouth. If your heart does not bleed, then you must have eaten a tortoise’s head.

For the full story, check the full story in the Vanguard newspaper.