Daji Sani writes that Governor Mohammadu Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State moved his entire cabinet and friends to the Malkohi IDP camp to celebrate this year’s Eid-El-Kabir with the IDPs
To put laughter on the faces of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who had been traumatised following their experiences in the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents, Governor Mohammadu Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State moved his entire cabinet and friends to the Malkohi IDP camp to celebrate this year’s Eid-El-Kabir with the IDPs.
The Malkohi camp became a destination for such a visit given the bomb explosion that rocked the camp last year which left six IDPs dead and several others injured including four staff of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who were on duty on that fateful day.
As a result of this development, the Malkohi IDP camp has attracted sympathy from people within and outside the state who troop to the camp with donations and gifts to empathise and sympathise with the IDPs and NEMA over the deadly bomb explosions.
While addressing his cabinet, IDPs and host of friends to his administration at the Malkohi camp on the Sallah day, Bindow said he was moved by the great danger posed by the insurgency in the North-east, where the IDPs had to go through some difficult experiences beyond human comprehension before they were brought to the camp.
He lamented that many IDPs lost their love ones and properties to attacks from Boko Haram insurgents which he said left them in hopeless situation. According to him, the IDPs for a very long time have not experienced a situation of merriment and laughter due to their predicaments and ordeals in the hands of the insurgents.
Bindow who was visibly concerned about the plight of the IDPs, said their coming to the IDP camp was also to celebrate victory with the IDPs over the end of insurgency and the return of normalcy and to thank God for His mercies over the region. He further explained that nobody believed that the insurgency will overwhelm the region going by the level of damage and the strong network of the insurgents in the areas.
“We have to thank God for using President Muhammadu Buhari to bring normalcy in the North-east. If you know what happened about five years ago till last year, then you need to thank God. We also need to thank the military for a job well done,” he said.
The goverrnor said very soon the IDPs will return home to start their normal lives as the military has liberated almost all affected areas but he was quick to add that the military is on top of the security situation in the region.
Bindow at the IDP camp also promised that his government will continue to support the IDPs and also collaborate with other humanitarian organisations to improve their living conditions.
He explained that the society has an obligation to wipe out their traumatic memories of cruelty and wickedness inputted in their minds by insurgency, through the expression love, kindness and making merriments around them to make them forget about their traumatic past.
He added that if the society continues to express love and concern over the plight of the IDPs, it will help them recuperate from their unholy and inhuman experiences in the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents.
“This act would disabuse a thought in their minds that nobody cares that was why they were left in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents to destroy their valuables and kill their love ones mercilessly.
“We must give these IDPs a sense of belonging and treat them as our brothers and sisters to remove stereotypes and any form of discrimination, but if we allow them to join the society with these level of hatred in their minds there may be a similar problem that may resurface in the nearest future again.
“Therefore, let us express true love to dislodge and overwhelm the animosity inputted in them by the Boko Haram insurgents’ incessant onslaught on them,” he said.
Food, drinks, gifts and various kinds of music and dance steps were at the Malkohi camp with the aim of expressing amusements and a sense of togetherness with the IDPs. The governor also ate from the same dish with the IDPs and danced with them. He told them that “we are in this together, you are not alone, we feel your pains much more as you do and you are not outcasts but you are just in a temporary situation, very soon you will go back home to live a normal life.”
Bindow observed that without the effort of President Buhari’s administration nobody in the region would have celebrated this year’s Sallah with his or her eyes closed for fear of attacks by the insurgents.
Also speaking at the IDPs camp, Comrade Ahmed Sajoh, the state Commissioner for Information, said the current administration is the government of the masses following its developmental activities.
He said the reason the governor walks freely among the downtrodden without any form of molestation and harassment from them was because all his projects are masses-driven adding that at an early morning walk with the governor to mark Adamawa at 25, the governor ordered the evacuation of some refuse dumps across the state that have been there for many years.
“You can see how people are rejoicing because most of these dumps have been there for many years and have been a menace to residents close to it and the evacuation has given them relief,” he said.
Sajoh called on the IDPs to cooperate with government and other humanitarian organisations that are in the camps to provide the basic necessities of life to them due to their situation.
Responding on behalf of the IDPs, Mr. Dominic Samuel lauded the gesture of the governor adding that it was the first time a governor was coming to celebrate Sallah in their camp.
“This is the first time a governor and his entire cabinet are coming to identify with us during a celebration like this one. We thank Governor Bindow for his humanitarian heart and the love for IDPs and the common man in the state.
“Every day we hear about your developmental activities in the state through our radio, we believe that God who brought you this time was because he has heard the cry of Adamawa people who have been neglected by the previous administrations that governed the state.
“We want to also use this opportunity to thank the state coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Sa’ad Bello, for his tireless efforts to see that we are well feed and taken care of,” Sammuel said.
He said that NEMA has done very well in managing the camp and also appreciated the efforts of the security personnel and other donor NGOs and humanitarians organisations like UNICEF, who he said have been supporting children’s educations in the camp.
Sammuel said the UNICEF has always been at the forefront at supporting children and women especially vulnerable and orphans at risk.
Another IDP who identified herself as Hajiya Mero told THISDAY at the camp that the generosity shown them by the government and NEMA was something to reckon with and thanked God for liberating their communities noting that they are only waiting for clearance to return to their native homes.
Mero who said she hails from Gwoza town in Bornu State, expressed willingness to return to her native town to start her normal life. She explained that though she lost her husband to the insurgency but life must continue because there is nothing she could do.
“The day they killed my husband, I watched them killing my husband even when I pleaded on his behalf, they refused but threatened to kill me, if I continue to disturb them with my plea. So my husband asked me to stop and immediately they slaughtered my husband in my presence like a goat,” she said
She said the only obligation left for her now is to train her children left for her by her late husband adding that she gives God all the praise and glory. She said at the peak of the crisis they never knew that they would be alive to celebrate Sallah with Bindow.
