Last week, the United Nations announced that tens of thousands of Nigerian children in the north east will die of malnutrition this year, unless they receive treatment soon. Making this announcement after a visit to Internally Displaced Persons camps in parts of the country blighted by the Boko Haram menace, the UN delegation, led by Munir Safieldin, its humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, called the conditions of these towns “devastating.” The relative slow reaction to this news can be described with the same word, devastating.

Malnutrition is a lack of proper nutrition caused by not having enough to eat, not eating enough of the right groups of food in adequate quantities, or the body’s inability to utilise what is being eaten. Malnourishment is also the prime cause of death of 50 percent of children under five and women in Nigeria, according to UNICEF. Now, that number is set to increase after the findings of the UN on Friday. “Almost 250,000 children under the age of five in Borno state will suffer from malnutrition this year,” Jean Gough of Nigeria’s UNICEF office said.

The fact that a potential humanitarian crisis has been going on for months in northern Nigeria with little awareness in the media, suggests apathy from the Nigerian government. For the government, as long as it doesn’t put the politics in Nigeria in their favour, they are not concerned, and for the citizens, a certain as-long-as-it-is-not-near-my-home attitude marks this lack of empathy for the IDPs.

Many of the afflicted towns were ravaged and then lost to the Boko Haram scourge before their liberation by the Nigerian Army some months after. The liberation started on the tail end of Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and gained momentum after Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration. However, bomb attacks by the sect continued in the area up until early 2016 but, the people affected had stopped receiving any attention from the rest of Nigeria by this time. This is very different from the general anger in reaction to the killings perpetrated by Boko Haram in the region, used to push Goodluck Jonathan away from the presidency back in 2015, suggesting that the war on Boko Haram had been politicised then and still is. Jonathan’s reaction to the Chibok girl kidnappings is also an example of how apathetic the Nigerian government can be, delaying their rescue simply because he thought it was the machination of his political opponents. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign also began like this, a wildfire of protests, that started as a flame among a few concerned people, spreading all over the world, before coming back to ignite other Nigerians who had apparently just woken up to their responsibilities. With the placards and posters then, most of the campaign appeared to be a publicity stunt and not genuine heartbreak to the plight of those girls. That is why it seems only a few groups are still clamouring for their return today

The Federal Government announced, earlier this year, for IDPs to return home, seemingly to make a statement that it was winning the war on Boko Haram. If these were the conditions they returned to, then it’s no surprise why more misinformed fighters are joining the terrorist group.

Now, the issue has taken a new dimension. The United Nations is mobilizing us to help our own people, which seems ironic since it’s usually the citizens of a country who call outsiders for help. Thousands of children could die from malnutrition but there’s been very little reaction from the Nigerian government and the citizens, especially since the announcements made last week. Boko Haram drafts new members in by offering them monetary incentives and a feeling of belonging. Crises like these birthed the terrorist problem and Nigeria would do well to nip this fundamental issue in the bud now, as opposed to putting things off until the last minute.

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