UNDER-DEVELOPMENT, BANE OF AFRICA'S DEMOCRACY (PART 2)
This is the concluding part of this publication. Kindly read the part one before reading this concluding part for easy comprehension. Another sign of weaken democracy in Nigeria: internally displaced people within a country.
Internally Displaced Persons also known as IDPs are mostly victims of the inhumanity of man against man. They are victims of various kind of injustices or violent confrontations, perpetrated by either their own government against them or by others, such as, communal clashes, terrorism, riots, religious conflicts, natural disasters and so on.
It is on record that, the expectation of the global population, resulting from the abrupt liquidation of the cold war consequent on the collapse of the Soviet union towards the tail end of 1980s were dashed. Many people across the world thought that the new world order would bring a desired peace to the entire world, enabling acculturation of development attitude to the world through the magical framework of integration and mutual aspiration of world state-actors soon realized that, the new world order is not circled around the pursuit of peace and development, but the continuation of hostility in another dimension.
Contrary to the expectation of the world population, the new world order has been characterized by more unstable and turbulent conflict situation, unhealthy power politics, destructive ethnic insurgencies, national rivalries, religious bigotry, government hypocrisy and endemic poverty, manufactured by globalization. Terrorism on the other hand has assumed a new dimension with its characteristic innovative contradictions, which has posed a greater threat to the world peace and security. What a new world disorder! This violent disorder is said to have created and increased refugee flows and an army of internally displaced persons in the contemporary world.
Furthermore, the most disturbing part of the IDP's story is the fact that, at the receiving end of this world disorder is Africa, where the continent have been said to be the leading providers of internally displacements and the largest generators of influx of refugee in the world.
According to UNHCR in the year 2011, Africa contributed almost eleven million internally displaced persons. It was also stated that, internally displaced persons now outnumbered refugees by ratio of 3 to 1, this figure by now would have gone beyond records, considering the various crisis that have befallen the resourceful continent without adequate records. This implies that, war and violent conflict between two or more nations had lowered, compared to conflict and violence which had occurred within the same country. This internal conflict and violence manifest in form of religious violence, communal clashes, political violence, pre and post-election violence, riots, etc.
It is worth to also note that, some of these conflicts are completely internal, while others are influenced by foreigners, but it is mostly believed that, most internal conflicts that had occurred and still occurring in Africa has some foreign influences in most cases. Using Nigeria as an example, it could be said that, the highest contributor to the internally displaced persons in the country are the Nigerian Government, from federal to state governments. It is worth to note that, since the emergence of the democratic government in 1999, the rate of the internally displaced person in Nigeria has grown beyond measure with unfavourable government policies, notably among them is the destructive demolition of houses, streets, villages and even an entire community without providing any alternative to the teeming population.
Before the advent of governments unfavourable policies in recent times, riots in places like Kano and Kaduna have always been a major provider of internally displaced persons, communal clashes in Osun State between Modakeke and Ife, and in Kwara state between Offa and Erin-Ile have also contributed. But since the demolition exercise which had displaced close to 3 million people in Abuja begun in the federal capital territory under the watch of the then president, Mr Olusegun Obasanjo and Minister of FCT, Mallam Nasir Elrufai, the story have not remained the same.
It was reported that, the then Minister of FCT, Nasir Elrufai rolled out bulldozers and demolished thousands of houses in Abuja in the name of correcting the FCT master plan. In this exercise, many landlords' homes were reportedly demolished with their homes even though they had genuine papers from Abuja Federal Capital authorities. After the demolition, some people slept and never woke up, they died of heart attack. Some were paralysed by shock received from the incident and remained on the wheel chair till date, some were not so lucky, as they died while trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, while many others fled the FCT to others places to constitute what we call the internally displaced persons (IDPs). The government is said to have successfully made the city beautiful, while destroying million of its citizens.
Elrufai reportedly demolished over 300,000 houses during his reign as Minister, which implies that, if at least 5 people for example were occupying each building demolished, Elrufai had displaced 300,000 x 5,which is 1.5million IDPs between 2003 t0 2007. This figure can even be more since in reality, most places demolished were mostly occupied by the poor where each building contain nothing less than 10 occupants or more.
Furthermore, the present FCT Minister, Bala Muhammed had also boastfully revealed that, he had demolished 126,000 houses since the beginning of the Jonathan led administration. If each of these building are occupied by at least 5 people, the Jonathan led federal government had also displaced 620,000 people within 2010 to 2012, which the total of displaced persons amount to 2.12million. Reports have it that, many women in the course of walking around without homes became prostitutes. Similarly, it was also reported that as at last count, around 5million Nigerians had been displaced by the mismanagement of two dams in Cameroon and many others dead. Also, the FCT Administration (FCTA) had also vowed to demolish another 19 villages in the satellite areas of Abuja in 2012, an exercise that was widely criticised by the civil society organizations. The victims cried out and took the issue to court restraining the FCTA from commencing the demolition, but the FCT Minister Bala Muhammed still vows to continue the exercise, as he promised to get the go ahead from the court of law. If such exercise is implemented as promised, the Federal Government would have displaced another 5 million persons, as the 19 villages are highly populated with one of it (Mpape) and its environs reportedly contain over 1million occupants.
In the same way, several states in Nigeria like Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara etc had also embarked on similar demolition exercises; notable among them is Lagos State under Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, where over 1 million people have also been displaced from the demolition of Ijora, Oshodi, Makoko and many other communities. Also, IDPs could be found during the religious skirmishes in the northern Nigeria. Notable among them were Kaduna crisis, Plateau and Kano religious uprising were several people were rendered homeless and made to flee for safety, particularly in the neighbouring state. The more recent of such examples is the on-going crisis in northern Nigerian with the members of the Boko haram sect, which affected no less than 6 states which include, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Plateau, Kano, Kaduna and Niger state.
In the south, Nigeria had some bad tales as well, and notable among them were Idi- araba crisis in Lagos, were several persons were displaced, Sagamu crisis in Ogun state, Anambra and Osun Crisis among others. It is worth to note that, many of these victims were never recorded, as the government didn't consider them as IDPs, they left them uncared for, making their lives more complicated. Therefore, the internally displaced persons (IDPs) are said to be those people who, by the virtue of fear of further attacks, or revenge by the rural groups or disputants, which they feel may cause harm or injury to them, decide to relocate to another area where they feel they can enjoy relative peace and tranquillity within the same national or state. They could also be people, whose home or places of work were demolished by their government without any alternative provided.
It is also important to note that, natural disasters such as floods have caused people to be internally displaced in Nigeria, examples can be seen in the 2012 flood, which affected several states like Bayelsa, Lagos, Oyo, Kogi, Kwara and many others.
Having identified the causes of IDP's and its effects, It was observed that, one appreciative and celebrating offer that one can give to the homeless is shelter and basic needs such as food, cloth, water and so on. Apart from these basic needs supplies, the internally displaced person needs to be counselled, cared for and assisted to overcome the emotional traumatisation that is usually associated with such unwelcoming experience.
However, In a situation where the government which should serve as the primary source of support for the needs of the IDP becomes the number one contributor to creating IDP's in a country without any meaningful support or alternative provision, it becomes difficult and complicated.
Apart from the fact that, Nigeria's government attitude is a contradiction to the principle of human right as declared by the United Nation and signed by all nations across the world, it is also against human reasoning that any government would intentionally displace its own people in the name of creating a beautiful city.
Finally, human rights organizations, well-wishers and concerned citizens must therefore put the affected victims in their shoes and provide the needed support as much as they can.
***Abdulrazaq O Hamzat is a peace and conflict resolution expert based in Nigeria.
Culled from my book, ''The truth about Nigeria''
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