Ngwom is a Kanuri hamlet on the outskirts of Maiduguri. At the height of Boko Haram insurgency, it was completely destroyed by the insurgents, who left it in total rubble and desolation. In this report, Michael Olugbode highlights what the community is now like after the intervention of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) that is rebuilding the troubled region from the ruins of the over a decade crisis, raising hope for every other destroyed town in the North-east
Ngwom, a small village by the road side on the way to Dikwa, few kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, fell not once nor twice but severally to Boko Haram. The community was left without a building standing, leaving its residents with no other option but to flee to Maiduguri with whatever they could pick. As they fled to Maiduguri for safety, uncontrollable tears gushed like a river from their faces leaving unforgettable pains and sorrows in their hearts and souls. The thoughts of abandoning their ancestral homes as they sought refuge outside re-echoed; the thoughts that their homeland had been lost forever, and that they would never have an opportunity to return to their beloved Ngwom.
But as they say, no condition is permanent; or better still, as the people of faith would say, there is nothing that God cannot do. Though God is hardly known to come down from his majestic heaven to change bad stories but He often uses the instrumentality of man to change situations and rewrite history. The story of Ngwom few years down the line had been rewritten all thanks to the NEDC established by Buhari administration with the mandate to assess, coordinate, harmonise and report on all intervention programmes, and initiatives by the federal government or its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), states; and other development partners and for the implementation of all programsmes and initiatives for the North-east states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe.
The Commission has its programmes classified into humanitarian, coordination, early recovery, long-term development and North-east recovery and stability programme.
The commission which was established in 2017 has finally picked up as major projects are being cited in the six states of the North-east. The interventions in Borno State, being the epicentre of the crisis, include and not limited to the following: donation of 40,000 (two-seater desks) for all public schools across the state, construction of primary healthcare facilities in Shani and Kwayakusar LGAs, provision of agricultural machineries and inputs – herbicides, fungicides, improved seedlings and fertilizers.
In tacking the COVID-19 pandemic, ambulances, PPEs, medical consumables and palliatives were provided in the state, boreholes drilled in some local government areas, and provision of security operational vehicles to security agencies.
Some of these projects are either replicated in the other five states of the region or plans are underway to provide them.
But the commission’s major projects are sited in Ngwom which used to be a remote rural area with a thriving livestock market with virtually no basic social amenity for a robust modern life. However, the story has changed with the intervention of NEDC as the residents, who hitherto could not boast of modern facilities, can now boast of modern facilities.
Ngwom was picked among the initial benefitting communities of the Special Presidential Intervention Fund (SPIB) for a mass housing project geared at facilitating resettlement of IDPs in their respective communities.
The ambitious housing project has become a reality following the speedy and accelerated construction by the NEDC with 1,000 housing units inaugurated and handed over to the Borno State Government for resettlement and reintegration of the IDPs.
The housing project could be described as the best ever constructed in the whole of the region, as it has social economic facilities like solar powered street lights, access roads, four solar powered industrial boreholes, over 3,000 economic trees as well as provision for the construction of market, police station, motor parks and other facilities.
The houses consist of blocks of four units of two-bedroom bungalows with veranda and courtyards in a cluster arrangement. Each block sits on four hundred square metres, with a perimeter fence and ample space for other home activities.
And in order to open up the area and promote socio-economic activities, NEDC plans to link Ngwom town with the agricultural bowl of Jere by constructing a network of 27km surfaced rural roads on the Maiduguri-Dikwa Road to Dusuman and Zabamari to North-west, up to Khaddamari in the North and down South to Gongolong on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
At the groundbreaking ceremony for the inauguration and handing over of the housing units, MD/CEO of NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, disclosed that as part of the execution of the Special Presidential Intervention in Borno State (SPIB), that NEDC was also funding the establishment of Technical and Vocational skills Acquisition Centres for the IDPs around the state at an estimated cost of N2 billion.
To make the resettlement of the IDPs in Ngwom comfortable and economically sustainable, Alkali said NEDC had provided relief materials which include 2,000 bags of rice, 2,000 cartons of spaghetti, 2,000 gallons of vegetable oil, 5,000 pieces of blankets and 5,000 pieces of mattresses. This is in addition to two thousand different vocational items such as cooking stoves, sewing machines, grinding machines, spaghetti machines and knitting machines.
Other items given to them include 5,000 pieces of mats, 4,000 sets of children wear, 4,000 mosquito nets, 5,000 pairs of slippers, 2,000 pieces of men brocade and 1,000 cartons of anti-septic soaps.
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, said like Oliver Twist, the state government was seeking for additional special support from the NEDC and the ministry in areas of roads and housing construction to facilitate efforts of reintegrating thousands of surrendered Boko Haram members into the society.
As a direct response to Zulum’s demands, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Faruq, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the handling over ceremony of the housing units, said both her ministry and NEDC, would key into the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement initiatives of the governor.
She noted that since the establishment of NEDC as a brainchild of the present administration, it had lived up to the expectation of government and people of Nigeria in addressing developmental challenges in the region which were brought about by Boko Haram insurgency.
Testimonies of NEDC’s faithful implementation of its core mandate across the region, also came from the National Assembly which commended the commission for its smooth implementation and interventions on the current humanitarian challenges ravaging the people in the North-east, especially Borno which is the epicentre of Boko Haram crisis.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Senator Abubakar Yusuf, maintained that the National Assembly would continue to give all the necessary support and assistance to the commission to enable it discharge its duties effectively without hindrance.
For the Chairman, Board of NEDC, Major General Paul Tarfa (rtd.), the commission would continue to do everything possible within its mandate to develop the region.
He said at the occasion: “Today, is one of the happiest days in the history of NEDC since it was established. This programme we are witnessing demonstrated the return of relative peace in the region.
“I want to commend the untiring efforts and commitment demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari, our security forces, governments and people of the North-east towards defeating Boko Haram terrorists, the NEDC under my watch with support from Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and development partners will do everything possible to nip in the bud the challenges facing the people at the moment.”
There were goodwill messages from the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Tallen and the Minister of State, Education, Chief Chukwuemeka Nwajuba, who were on hand during the ceremony. They thanked the federal and state governments of the six North-east states and other developing partners for their relentless efforts in giving hope to the hopeless, especially women and children who are more vulnerable groups in the society.
Alkali noted that the Ngwom Housing project was just the beginning of NEDC intervention in the housing sector and that the commission intended to replicate similar project in other parts of Borno State as well as in the other five member states of the commission. He said in the first instance, a total of 500 houses would be constructed in each of the five states of Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba with the foundation laying ceremony expected to be performed in the coming days.
He said the overall goal of the federal government and NEDC, was to construct a total of 10,000 housing units across the region for the resettlement of IDPs who are currently sheltered in public and private places with Borno State having the lion share of nearly two million IDPs.
The people of the village, who are expected to be living in the new houses, expressed their joy. One of them Modu Bukar said: “This is unbelievable. I still do not believe that I will be living with my family in one of these houses. I used to stay in a thatched hut in this village and now I am going to be living with my family in this modern building. It is definitely beyond my expectation and what my income in years could have built.
“Though the memories of Boko Haram is hard to wipe away, but definitely the joy of living in this house would bring joy back to my soul, and the humanitarian package I am going to be given will go a long way to bring my family and I from extreme poverty and beggarly living to self-sustenance with hope of greater things ahead.”
And to Yagana Abdullahi who lost her husband during one of the attacks on the village, she said with tears in her eyes: “How I wish my husband was here today to see where I will be living with his children. I know definitely he is looking from heaven and happy that we are going to be staying in this beautiful house and we are going to be assisted to get back on our feet with humanitarian assistance package. He will definitely be happy that we are no longer going to go to bed with nothing to eat and that we will not continue to go to the streets to beg for what to eat. I must thank NEDC, the governments of Borno and Nigeria.”
Definitely the people of Ngwom now have a place to call home after living in desolation and they have food to eat with humanitarian assistance and economic packages delivered to them, now it is time for every other village and its people to be hopeful that their turn to live comfortably is right at the corner. This is nothing but a life from desolation and poverty to a change to modernity and happiness, all thanks to NEDC.
