“We will see, I think, a famine unlike any we have ever seen anywhere,” Those were the words of the UN assistant secretary general Tony Lanzer last week in Brussels while trying to describe the enormity of the humanitarian crises in North-eastern Nigeria. In June, the UN announced that tens of thousands of Nigerian children would die of malnutrition this year in the various IDP camps in the country if there is no quick intervention. Thanks to Nigerian government officials, malnutrition has become a “never-seen-before” famine.
Famine is defined in the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary as “a lack of food during a long period of time in a region.” Many people are more familiar with famine as a result of natural causes, e.g. drought. However, Nigeria’s famine is all man-made. Boko Haram’s reign of terror has been ended in most parts of North-eastern Nigeria by the deep incursions from the Nigerian Army. However, that has come with repercussions as many of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Nigeria have witnessed an increase as people flee liberated towns. Swelling numbers, millions of Nigerians, in IDP camps have created a huge pressure on the available resources; most importantly food.
However, there’s a new kind of terror in IDP camps, even for these Boko Haram victims. Food meant for the IDPs have reportedly been diverted by camp officials for their personal use. Any whistle-blowing reportedly comes with death threats from government officials.
“In the night they (camp officials) load up vehicles with food and take it away to their houses,” an IDP who spoke to the Guardian UK said this week. “But I can’t complain. [A local official] said that if I complain, he will tell soldiers that I am a member of Boko Haram and they will kill me.” Another IDP complained camp members subsist on leaves. “There is no food. There are people in there who have resorted to begging to survive. There are others who just cook leaves and eat and sleep, for two weeks now,” she said.
The Nigerian government has done so much both in fighting Boko Haram, and then rehabilitating and accommodating its victims in IDP camps. However, it is baffling that despite the ongoing anti-corruption crusade, there are still government officials in these IDP camps bent on diverting resources not meant for them into their own homes.
Since the UN and Doctors Without Borders first raised the issue early this year, about malnourished IDP children and corrupt IDP camp officials, little has been done by the Nigerian government to put a stop to it. It is a famine now, but entirely man-made, under the watch of the present Nigerian administration.
We probably don’t know the whole story, and recession is also a problem. however, the silence from the Nigerian government since the “famine” announcement seems to give a sense of feeling that the UN is more concerned about our citizens than we are. When foreign NGOs visit our IDP camps, they find malnourished children and pictures to match. When Nigerian NGOs visit the IDP camps, Nigerians usually see pictures of food items being donated. The gap in between these two scenarios, that has created this famine problem, suggests some lying and stealing has been going on behind the scenes.
For those not yet convinced if all Nigerians should be concerned, foreign media does not discriminate. “Nigeria is in famine,” not “Northern Nigeria is in famine” are what the headlines look like. And we all know the relationship between sensational headlines and jumping into conclusions.
The next time you see a headline repeating that Nigeria is in famine, just remember that Ethiopia has not been able to overcome its 1983-1985 famine stigma despite the fact that the drought was localized to its northern part. Now, when talking about Ethiopia, the media talks about its famine and poverty in the same breath as its rapidly growing and expanding economy.
We often fail to learn from history in Nigeria. And that may soon happen with Boko Haram. From all angles, the Nigerian army has depleted their ranks, but we might in a way help them fill it back. Like one of the IDPs told the Guardian UK, “If the government cannot take care of us, they should take us back to our town. It’s better to just face Boko Haram in our homes and die than suffer here like this,” Boko Haram will be too happy to accept them.
