Insurgency: North Eastern States Economy On Bended Knees

The economy of several states in the eastern part of the country has already been crippled by the Boko Haram war and it would take several years with the support of the federal government and the international community for it to recover. This Blogger  (Kareem Haruna) writes for LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPER

In Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, residents have only 10 hours of everyday to attend to their daily businesses; the remaining 14 hours are observed under restricted curfew. It has been like that for about three years now.

Most businesses that used to thrive in the evening hours are now crippled. Prices of commodities, including water, cooking gas and commodities for daily sustenance have had their prices jacked up.

Aliyu Abdullahi, a primary school teacher in Maiduguri, has one major challenge now: getting to feed his family daily. Food is actually not his problem, but the means of preparing the meal.

Cooking gas or kerosene stove are not the means of cooking in Abdullahi’s home; his household depends solely on firewood.

But of late, even firewood has become a very expensive essential domestic commodity to buy in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. Three pieces of sliced firewood sells for between N400 and N450 in Maiduguri.

“We are faced with a very difficult situation here; getting to buy firewood for cooking is now very expensive, because our local firewood vendors are now being prevented by the Civilian-JTF and soldiers from entering the town”, said Abdullahi.

Many businesses, especially those that thrive at night, have packed up while those still managing to survive are running at a loss.

For example, a popular evening delicacy – roast fish and fried Irish-potatoes – which has been a thriving business in Maiduguri in the last five years, is gradually grinding to a halt because of the evening curfew.

Janet Malgwi, a roast fish and fried Irish potatoes vendor, told LEADERSHIP Friday: “Our business normally starts at 4pm when we start roasting the fish and sometimes lasts till 12am. But these days, we only have few hours to operate, and this causes us to suffer huge loss, because we couldn’t sell off our wares”.

Janet expressed fear that source of supply of fresh fish may soon dry up as the local fishermen that usually bring the fish “are no more bringing much because of the attacks on them on the way.”

Most farmers, especially those that are involved in rice farming, are already lamenting the hard times they currently face as they have not   tilled their farmlands for about three years now.

Alhaji Umaru Musa, one of the leaders of the rice farming communities around Balge, Umba-Umba, in Konduga local government area, said: “Our rice farms were attacked and set on fire on October 19, last year, when Boko Haram gunmen attacked our farming community. About eight of our colleagues died in the series of attacks that occurred within that period”, said Musa.

“They attacked when we were at the peak of the harvesting period and they set ablaze both already harvested and bagged rice, as well as the rice farms. We had to flee when the rice plantation was being burnt. These Boko Haram people have got us liquidated completely.”

Umar is worried that staple foods like rice would soon become very scarce commodities in the market because of the Boko Haram disturbance.

Chairman of Farmers Association, Alhaji Muhammed Namadi, recently decried the spate of attacks on farmers within the state, and lamented that the Boko Haram insurgency had caused them the loss of well over N3 billion worth of food crops, especially rice, in the last three years.

“We have suffered a great deal as farmers in the last three years,” he said. “We have lost well over three billion naira worth of food and grains production due to insecurity in the state. Many young and old farmers have been forced to leave their farms and many forfeited their already planted crops. We want the government of Governor Kashim Shettima as well as the federal government to help us out with funds and equipment, to will enable us bounce back,” said the Farmers’ Association chairman.

“In the past, we in Maiduguri, Jere and Marte areas were leaders in the production of wheat, grains, rice, and maize. But today, the reverse seems to be the case. We no longer bring out the usual daily supply of at least 20,000 bags of rice to the market. Now that peace is returning and the people are returning, there is need for support to the farmers,” he said.

LEADERSHIP Friday can authoritatively report that in 2013 when the Boko Haram violence escalate, more than 19,000 wheat farmers in Marte local government could not harvest their crops due to the attacks by Boko Haram terrorists, and they have not been able to return to farm again since then.

Managing director of Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA), Dr Garba Abubakar Iliya, once informed journalists that about 5,000 hectares of wheat under the South Chad Irrigation Scheme (SCIP) of the Authority, were cropped in 2013, but the farmers could not finish the harvests due to the activities of the insurgents which forced the farmers to abandon 3,500 hectares of wheat, which was destroyed and pilfered by stray animals and thieves.

Aside the destruction of farmlands and food items, Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states have also witnessed a massive exodus of residents, mostly businessmen who are non-natives of the region. Going through the major towns of Damaturu and Maiduguri where the insurgency was at its worst, one would see major streets with shops locked up and their Igbo, Yoruba and other South-south owners having long fled the towns.

Yahaya Garba, an automobile mechanic, laments how getting to buy vehicle spare parts has now become a major headache for all commuters.

“In the past, Maiduguri was like the headquarters of all kinds of automobile spare parts, with customers coming from Adamawa, Gombe, Damaturu and even from Chad, Cameroon and Niger to get their cars fixed here because we had all kinds of spare parts market here. But with the increased attacks by Boko Haram, most of our Igbo spare parts dealers have fled, and the few ones that are on ground would only order spare parts on request. This has made business very difficult for us.”

According to a Yola-based public affairs analyst, Mr Emmanuel Kwache, it will take at least five years of strenuous effort at building all the damage caused to the North East by Boko Haram before the region would begin to measure up with other parts of the country.

“In Adamwa State for example, there is no house that is standing in Michika town, and virtually all businesses have been crippled since the Boko Haram insurgents attacked it and sacked everyone there. It will take at least five years of concrete rebuilding process for us to reach our previous level of development before the terror attacks,” he noted.

“We urge the authorities to embark on speedy rehabilitation drives to ensure that the economy of the areas are revived, because virtually all business and economic activities have been completely crippled in most of the towns visited by the insurgents.

In Maiduguri and Damaturu towns, the depth of poverty induced by the activities of the Boko Haram can easily be measured by the number of able bodied men and women that have taken to begging in the streets.

Hajja Kollo, a 36-year-old woman and mother of six, said that since the attack on her village in Mainok during which her husband was killed, she has no means of supporting herself and her children.

“We have been chased away from our village. My husband’s small provisions shop was burnt and I cannot go back to work in the farm because it is very dangerous; so I have to join other women who advised that we should rather go round town to beg for alms so that we can feed ourselves and our children,” she stated.

Consequently, North East Nigeria, a region presumed to be sitting on crude oil deposits yet to be tapped and a region boasting of one of the world’s most fertile agricultural soils, is today faced with a war that has not only decimated over 14,000 lives, but even threatens the future of its natural resource.

The Boko Haram insurgency has in the last six years dealt states of the region a devastating blow, leaving its social and economic interests bleeding from injuries that may take many years to heal.

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima had two years ago said it would take his state, which is the epicentre of the insurgency, at least 50 years to recover from the reverse it has suffered due to the attacks. The governor spoke at the time the world was thinking the insurgency was coming to its end.

From 2013, Boko Haram terrorists stepped up their heinous activities by not only kidnapping persons but also sacking communities and declaring them new territories under their Islamic caliphate.

Before the advent of Boko Haram, Borno, which is the largest amongst the three frontline states of the region, was recognised as one of the foremost producers of beans, fish, pepper and rice in that part of northern Nigeria.

Most of these agricultural and fishing activities take place at the shores of the Lake Chad.

The Lake Chad, which has receded by about 23,600 square kilometres in nearly about five decades, has left vast lands of over 500 square kilometres of its underwater on the Nigerian side, of which, agricultural scientists have said, has a superlative degree of fertile soil for agriculture.

On the micro-economic level, life continues to bite harder for residents of volatile northeast Nigerian states. While residents in over 15 local government areas of the state have been displaced and pushed into the state capital, Maiduguri, major economic activities like farming, fishing and international trading that have been the preoccupations of the displaced people are left unattended to for two years running.

Analysts are of the view that once the Boko Haram insurgents have been brought to their knees, the federal government, multinationals and the international community must rise to the occasion to bail out the states in the region, whose economy has been crippled by the Boko Haram war.