Zulum To NEMA: 800,000 Borno IDPs Need Food In 11 Towns 

The Borno State  Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum at headquarters of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, in Abuja   demanded food supplies to 800,000 internally displaced persons in critical need across 11 towns in Borno.

 

Zulum in a letter, informed NEMA’s Director General, AVM Muhammadu Alhaji Mohammed (rtd) that IDPs in Monguno, Bama, Damboa, Gwoza, Dikwa, Gamboru, Ngala, Damasak, Banki, Pulka and Gajiram currently need urgent access to food supplies despite sustained efforts by Borno state government, which combines humanitarian challenges with addressing other provision basic needs across the state.

 

The governor however, acknowledged interventions made by NEMA, the Northeast Development Commission and far reaching efforts by the Nigerian Customs Service following Presidential directive two years ago, that food seizures be used for humanitarian support in crises areas.

 

Zulum noted that food interventions have to be sustained because whereas majority of IDPs rely on agriculture as means of livelihood, substantial portions of them cannot access their farmlands due to insurgents.

 

Our correspondent writes that Governor Zulum, according to Commandant General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu, was one of the first Governors to domesticate the use of armed NSCDC personnel as agro rangers, for protection of farming activities in parts of Borno State.

 

Even though the partnership gave birth to increase in farming activities by IDPs in farmlands in outskirts of towns, acceleration of attacks by Boko Haram reversed fortunes, forcing thousands of displaced farmers to rely on food aid.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, NEMA’s DG, AVM Muhammadu Muhammed (Rtd) said yesterday for his commitment, hard work and dedication, every state in the country would like to have Borno’s Professor Babagana Umara Zulum as their Governor.

 

“If you go into Maiduguri, you will be shocked, you wouldn’t believe you are in Maiduguri. I have been to Maiduguri with a special assistant to Mr President from a particular state, he looked at me and said, can you please borrow this Zulum of a man to us? I am sure every state will like to have this gentleman Professor as a Governor.

 

“If there is one gentleman everybody envies, whether they are able to do what he does or not, it is Professor Zulum. And the simple fact is that we all know what is right and what is wrong is wrong and what is right can only be achieved with the fear of God” AVM Muhammadu said.

 

The DG assured Governor Zulum of the agency’s support to Borno state, particularly in the actualization of Borno’s 25 year development plan unveiled recently.

 

“Your Excellency, every staff of NEMA is willing at all time to give you 100% support in everything you need. You have been very hard. I assure you that the President, Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces has given us the mandate, he has given us the resources and has said it many times to do everything possible to support what you do, and key into the Borno State 25 year development plan” the DG added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Borno Governor,  on Thursday met Nigeria’s minister of foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama to conclude intergovernmental efforts for voluntary repatriation of thousands of Borno citizens currently taking refuge in parts of Cameroon, after fleeing from Boko Haram attacks in batches, within the last six years.

 

The meeting which held at the federal ministry of foreign affairs in Abuja, was a follow up to Zulum’s series of meetings with minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Umar Farouk, top executives of the National commission for refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, among and other stakeholders.

 

The Thursday meeting, which held behind closed doors, discussed the role of the federal ministry of foreign affairs which has the mandate to facilitate the repatriation through diplomatic channels, with the hope to undertake it, in January 2021

 

The meeting was attended by Nigeria’s serving Ambassador to China, Amb. Baba Ahmad Jidda, who was there as a statesman from Borno state.

 

More than 60,000 Nigerian refugees, majority from Borno and some from Adamawa states are believed to be in Minwao camp in Cameroon, which Zulum had visited and supported with social protection relief.

 

The governor has also approved ongoing construction of thousands of houses in which repatriated refugees will be permanently resettled in safe communities.

 

Zulum was also in the Niger republic and the republic of chad where Borno citizens are always there as refugees who fled insurgent attacks. In both countries, the governor authorized and supervised the distribution of food items and cash relief to thousands of families, some of whom the governor had to cross Lake Chad waters in order to reach them Baga Sola refugee camp within the Chadian border territory. N50m was distributed to 5,000 families in the area in less than three weeks ago.

 

Within that same period, Zulum was in N’Djamena in Chad, and was hosted by President Idris Deby to discuss repatriation of thousands of Nigerian refugees, majority from Borno. The meeting, held at the presidential palace, was attended by Nigerian ambassador to Chad, Zannah Umar Bukar Kolo, who represented Nigeria’s federal ministry of foreign affairs.

By Aisha Hameed