Hundreds of women, children and a few men serve as pathetic reminders of the human cost of the post-election violence which swept most of the States in the far north of Nigeria. They are refugees sheltering at the Hajj Camp in Kaduna city, in a State which received the worst brunt of the violence. They have nothing, and have all lost many relatives, particularly fathers and other male heads of their families. They are mostly from villages in the southern part of the State, and most have been witnesses to the slaughter of relatives. They have no material possessions; no other relations, and no faith and hope that they can relocate back to their former villages in the near future. They are entirely at the mercy of a Government which appears overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the violence and its aftermath; and at the mercy of members of the public and non-state organizations who visit occasionally to drop token symbols of their sympathy on them.
A few days ago, the committee appointed by the Kaduna State Government to take an inventory of losses in lives and property, and to provide some relief to the refugees gave out some amounts of money to each adult and family to enable them relocate away from the Hajj camp into rented accommodation. Most of the refugees turned down the offer, or collected the money, and stayed put. It would have been surpassing if the refugees had moved out of the Camp with the amounts given to them, and public opinion has generally supported the contempt for the Government’s token offers of about N15,000 per family. Government’s defense is that the amounts given to each refugee family or adult was the best it could do given the huge number of refugees at the Hajj Camp and other locations across the State. In any case, Government claims it is not compensating the refugees, but only extending additional assistance over those which have been made available to the victims by government and non-governmental organizations and individuals.
Most of the refugees have resolved to stay put in the Camp, not so much as a show of defiance, but out of a genuine absence of anywhere else to go. The failure of the cash-for-space approach of the Government has failed woefully, and has drawn more attention to the plight of the refugees.
The Kaduna State Hajj Camp which serves as the processing and exit point for tens of thousands of Pilgrims from Kaduna and neighboring States now serves as classrooms for displaced children; a shelter for many families who have lost everything and have nowhere to go; and a symbol of a lingering crisis which will be with the people of the State for a very long time. Ordinarily at this time of every year, the Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board should be preparing the camp for the annual influx of tens of thousands of pilgrims. But this is not an ordinary year, so some very difficult decisions will need to be taken by the Kaduna State and Federal Governments. Pilgrims must go to Hajj, but the way things are, they cannot use the Camp unless a quick and realistic solution is found for the present situation of the refugees. At this stage, a number of options would appear to be available for the government.
One option is to find an alternative camp around the present camp or near the airport and prepare it for use by pilgrims by November and December this year. This option will leave the refugees where they are, while new funds are sourced to prepare the alternative camp. While this option may solve the Hajj problem in the short term, it will not address the problem of the refugees. A second option is to use a neighboring camp facility and airport, say Abuja or Kano, to airlift pilgrims who would otherwise use the Kaduna Camp and international airport. Again, this will involve additional costs, and still leave the refugee problems unresolved. A third option is to leave the pilgrims where they are, and still organize the Hajj operations around them. This will cause serious management and image problems for the exercise and the government, and is likely to affect the quality of the exercise. This, too, will not solve the refugee problems.
All these options outlined do not address the challenging problems of the refugees. These unfortunate citizens are not loafers who want to live off the charity of government and fellow citizens. A few months ago, they were busy earning a living, looking after their families in their homes, or going to school in their neighborhoods. They are tired of living on charity and pity and handouts, and they want to relocate to their own homes. But they cannot go back to many of the places they fled from because their homes have been burnt and demolished. They are demanding that government builds homes for them to relocate into. And they have many sympathizers in the community, but this will be impossible task for the government. Every refugee or citizen who had his or her house or shop burnt, and there are hundreds of them, will demand that his or property is rebuilt. No government has the resources to do this. In any case, the Government Committee responsible for stock taking and advising government on what steps to take will have to address the nature of long-term relief which government may extend to victims.
The solution to the refugees at the Hajj Camp should be found quickly. By now, government should have a clear idea of the numbers and other statistics of these people who have taken refuge in the camp. The State government should provide each family or individual with a realistic amount to enable them relocate into alternative accommodations. Certainly, the amounts given to them earlier will not enable them find accommodation in and around Kaduna. Government officials can actually also help them scout around for rented accommodation, rather than giving them cash and sending them into strange environments to look for accommodation.
In the longer term, government needs to rebuild community trust and harmony in areas from which these refugees fled, so that those of them who want to go back can do so, and live in peace. Unless the thousands of people who have been chased out of their locations by murderous mobs can go back and live in peace, Kaduna State will be even further segregated along ethnic and religious lines than it has been. It is bad enough that many of the refugees say that they are victims of former neighbors who they lived with and know very well; but the failure to re-integrate them by enabling them to go back if they want, will leave too many wounds open for too long. The existence of refugees in camps in Kaduna State is a reminder and evidence that the State is yet to put behind it the sad events which followed the last Presidential elections. Coupled with rumors of attacks and recurring tensions especially in the Southern parts of the State, the perception that the people of the State are not out of the woods yet is bound to persist. It is time to deploy some imaginative search for solutions, and a strong political will to heal wounds and help individuals, families and communities move away from the terrible events of April 2011.
The refugees who have found a temporary shelter at the Hajj Camp in Kaduna have no rights more or less than those in other camps. All refugees and victims of the violence of April 2011 need all the assistance and sympathies they can get, wherever they are. The refugees at the Camp need to be provided with realistic alternative accommodation so that preparations for the Hajj can commence. Under no circumstances should force or any strategy of causing them further inconveniences so that they leave the camp be contemplated.
No comments:
Post a Comment