IDP camps in Borno to be closed down in 2017

All Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps are set to be closed down by Borno State government by May 29, 2017.

The Governor of Borno, Kashim Shettima, said displaced persons in the state, numbering about 2million, will be made to return to their towns and villages after the state government’s reconstruction of communities destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents.

“We have reconstructed Bama by 25 per cent; my target is to reach 50 per cent by the end of this year and 75 per cent by first quarter of 2017,” Shettima told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Maiduguri.

“I want to close down all IDP camps latest May 29, 2017, because the IDP camps are becoming a huge problem on their own.

“If we allow the entrenchment of these IDP camps, they are pregnant with loads of challenges of early child marriage, prostitution, drug abuse, gangsterism.

“And we will be confronted with huge social challenges of an entitlement complex of people feeling that they are entitled to be catered for.

“So in as much as we observe the Kampala Convention, we will not compel anybody to return to their communities.

“But we know our people better than any other person, and it is not for somebody sitting in Abuja, Paris, London, US and any other places to dictate to us on how we should live our lives.

“Our people, in spite of their poverty, still have some pride left in them, a lot of them will rather go back to their communities and eat guinea corn and millet than to eat your rice and chicken in the IDP camps.

“This is why we want to restore the dignity of our people by rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their schools, engaging them in gender empowerment initiatives so as to enable them return back to their homes,” Shettima said.

The governor further said that some IDPs will make a return to the Kaga Local Government Area of the state in December, adding that with time, Nigerians would appreciate the modest accomplishment of the state towards the resettlement plans.

In what has been hailed as a triumph over Boko Haram in the state, schools have been able resume academic activities in several parts of the formerly terrorised region.