Bakassi returnees camp: A nation’s shame, citizens’ pain

Perhaps, this action reflects her disappointment with a nation, a society that has shown little or no concern  to the plight of its own people displaced through no fault of theirs and once upon a time, abandoned by the same nation that traded their home for a piece of cake. Over the years, Bakassi returnees […]

Perhaps, this action reflects her disappointment with a nation, a society that has shown little or no concern  to the plight of its own people displaced through no fault of theirs and once upon a time, abandoned by the same nation that traded their home for a piece of cake.

Over the years, Bakassi returnees to Bayelsa, their ancestral homeland, have hoped against hope, that the federal government will come to their aid by building for them, low cost houses as well as provide them with soft loans or jobs to begin life again. But that dream has however, become a mirage as there is nothing in sight to depict that life for them will ever be the same again.

After series of tests of military might between Nigeria and Cameroon over the ownership of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula which claimed several lives, Cameroon finally dragged Nigeria to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague to adjudicate and determine the rightful owner of the disputed territory.

After a long drawn legal battle between both countries, the ICJ finally ruled and conceded the disputed area to Cameroon in 2005 though it was not until 2006 before former President Olusegun Obasanjo finally pulled Nigerian soldiers out of the area while his administration began a re-settlement process of Nigerians living in the area back to the Nigerian side of the border.

The majority of the displaced persons were eventually re-settled in Cross River state while not a few who chose to, were re-relocated back to their ancestral homes in other states, particularly in Bayelsa state, with an assurance by the federal government that it would provide the enabling environment for them to begin a new and worthy life.

However, for the returnees, since their return, it has been one misfortune after another and their pains have continued to multiply unabated with no end in sight. From anguish through disappointment, neglect and hopelessness; they have continued to count their misfortunes.

Indeed, the squalor settlement inhabited by the 2006 Bakassi returnees from Cross River State is a shame to a country so richly blessed like Nigeria and a state highly blessed with oil wealth like Bayelsa state.

To imagine the frustration of the 2006 batch of returnees from Bakassi, following the World Court verdict that ceded the land to Cameroon at the wake of the millennium is to state the highest level of abandonment.

With nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to, the population of 8,000 persons comprising 1,600 families, on returning to the land of their fore fathers inheritance since 2006 were left with uncertainty of a bleak future.

The Secretary of the Bakassi Returnees Camp, Mr Stephen Shwool told Sunday Trust that his kinsmen had become victims of pain, neglect, shame, frustration and abandonment by the federal and state governments and worst still, by their local government council that has shown no consideration at giving them any chance of survival.

Shwool lamented the worrisome danger ahead of the people, if nothing is done urgently to address their plight. Already, 167 persons among the returnees have lost their lives due to lack of adequate medical attention when it was needed as a result of their poor financial status.

Most of them were said to have died following child birth, malaria, snake bites and accident among others. And in spite of earlier promises by government to provide them with a livelihood through the provision of flying boats, fishing nets and absorbing qualified ones among them into the civil service, they’ve continued to wallow in abject poverty as none of these promises have seen the light of day.

At the time Dr Bolere Ketubu held forte as Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, they were asked to compile and submit their names for consideration and absorption into the civil service but that was where it all ended. Every efforts made to ensure the government lived up to its promises failed as such efforts were met with stiff opposition from unfriendly receptionists in the relevant offices, Shwool retorted.

The present development that has become worrisome to the people, according to the secretary, is the fact that their predicament has forced most of their young girls into prostitution and they are at the risk of getting infected with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV\AIDS.

Corroborating this view, the women leader, Mrs Korikiri Ombe, said ‘it is obvious that our female children are forced into prostitution, when we cannot give them what they want in terms of feeding , education or even shelter. What do you want them to do? she queried hysterically.

Stressing further the appalling situation, Ombe noted that the camp, mainly built with shack woods accommodates between 10 and 20 persons in a room without toilet or other conveniences and with no other social amenity within the camp, they are forced to meander through flood to ease themselves when nature calls.

In the process of answering nature calls, Sunday Trust gathered that some of the returnees were bitten by snakes and other dangerous reptiles. Some of them were said to have survived the ordeal through the mixture of excreta (shit) and local gin (ogogoro) administered on them by native prescription while others died.

The woman leader urged government to quickly come to their aid to avert further tragedies in the camp especially now that the rains have flooded the camp, adding that seven of their children between the ages of two and seven have been killed by the flood, having fell and drowned in the water while playing.

For the able bodied men among them, the current situation since the rains started is more disturbing because they can no longer get menial jobs to do in order to fend for their families. Most of the men now sit at home doing nothing except to wait for their wives to pick empty containers of Ragolis water from dustbins, resell them and provide money for the upkeep of the household.

Addis Benimo is one of such men. Sipping garri as his lunch for the afternoon, he smiled sarcastically at our correspondent and beckoned on her to take a seat before baring his mind. “I was happy at Bakassi, when we were coming back to my original land, I was also happy but on reaching here, I have been full of regrets ever since because the government failed to empower us as they promised us before we came.

“I would have preferred we remained in Cameroon rather than return to our land of birth. The process that brought us here has led to loss of lives and properties, and we are not the least considered in the scheme of things”, Benimo lamented.

Benimo’s view was also shared by Madam Evelyn Ikiodiribo, an elderly woman who says she spent 70-years of her life in Bakassi before the displacement that led to her return home. For her, life at the boundary that now belongs to the Cameroon was pleasant as fishing, her primary occupation, thrived.

Now, Ikiodiribe buys empty containers of Ragolis water from children at the rate of seven for N20 or picks the containers from dustbins, wash them and take them to Swali market to resell at three for N20 so as to earn a living with her household.

She said life has become tedious and terrible for everyone in the camp. Survival for them lies on the sale of the used containers and what is known in local parlance as mediga-congo bread (a type of hard bread that is locally made). She concluded her lamentations saying “they brought us here and left us to fate without doing anything for us”

To every one of the returnees, the story is however the same as they hopelessly look into the unknown future, desperately wishing for a divine intervention which seems to be much far away and daily becoming a mirage.

It is however instructive to note that the Bakassi returnees came in batches in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. Ironically, only the 2006 batch were provided with the ramshackle make-shift camp by government along Azikoro road in Yenagoa while the other batches are already lost in the crowd with no place to even call a home.

Sunday Trust learnt that the State government gave the other three returnee batches the sum of N50,000 each on their arrival, while the 2006 batch were provided with N1,000 each as feeding allowance per family for two consecutive days in addition to another N10,000 each for resettlement at the place known today as Bakassi Camp.

On its part, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), it was gathered, seldom provides the people with relieve materials such as bags of rice, beans, garri and toiletries. But, obviously, these are not enough to take care of the needs of the people who have multiplied exceedingly over the years, stated Shwool.

Because the returnees have no major business to engage their idle hands, it is interesting to note that they have taken solace in fulfilling the divine mandate of procreation, against the backdrop of their living condition which has become a source of concern to some Non-Governmental Organisations.

Moved by their plight, a youth corps members built a shade for the children to serve as a learning centre while an NGO known as Nyanya Foundation provided uniforms for the pupils. Another group, Abiala Foundation, occasionally visits the camp to cater for the sick amongst them.

Due to the level of neglect, Shwool further revealed that they regard themselves as fourth class citizens in their own country saying, “during the election, they were here to campaign and we gave them our votes. We voted massively for the PDP and Goodluck Jonathan and yet, we are not recognised. We have made efforts but it has not yielded any result. We traced our roots and went to our villages but they didn’t pay us attention, so we returned here”, he added.

Undoubtedly, the plight of the returnees posed great dangers and for as long as they remain in their present condition, so long will they continue to constitute grave problems and dangers to the society where all their hopes of living a decent and comfortable life have vanished and evaporated.

This general feeling among these endangered Nigerians, and rightly so, is that of bitterness occasioned by their abandonment as there seems to be no rationals or justification for bringing them back to their homeland without giving them hope or future in the form of good housing, education and source of livelihood which calls to question the existence of government in the first place.

Already, the critical condition of the returnees is over stretched beyond limit and if allowed to break out of control, then, certainly, the vulnerable amongst them would unleash terror on the same society that has looked down on them with abject abandonment, disdain and contempt.

Warning against the likely implications of allowing the present situation to continue unabated, Shwool, who is obviously irked and dejected stated, “if there is no intervention, our boys may become the devil’s tool. These boys are exposed to the temptation of social vices but we have been doing every thing to prevent them from attempting such but naturally, if nothing is done urgently, they may lose control and the general society would be the worse for it.”

Certainly, government should not allow these vulnerable youths to become willing tools for devilish acts before seeking solutions. In recent times, the nation has been bereaved of too many loved ones that have lost their lives to the heinous activities of militants in the Niger Delta and of late, the Boko Haram that has continued to terrorise some sections of the Northern part of the country.

And this is traceable to the age long manifestation of neglect of such class of people who are easily persuaded to believe that the society is the cause of their misfortunes and thereby, turning back to fight dirty and unleash terror on the society.

It saddens occupants of the camp that they can’t access clean potable water and good education for their children who learn in mushroom shades under the supervision of unqualified teachers. One of them, in an emotion laden voice, asked if what their children is getting is proper education, yet they contribute their meagre resources to pay the teachers at the end of each month.

Also worrisome is the fact that they die of undisclosed ailments and nobody can really say the cause of so many deaths that are being recorded in the camp due to their lack of access to hospitals and medical care. Bedaperebo Alekpe who is lying in a critical condition explained to Sunday Trust.

At the moment, the community has resolved to seek divine spiritual assistance to alleviate their plight as the secretary; Shwool, said they are planning to visit the popular healing minister, Pastor T. B. Joshua, in Lagos for spiritual help.

Meanwhile, the returnees are counting on the recent visit of the Boundary Commission to the area as a ray of hope at the end of a dark tunnel as the Commission has assured of its preparedness to re-settle and establish them like their counterparts in neighbouring Cross River.

If the promise is kept, and their condition and standard of living is giving a fillip, it would go a long way to assuage the feelings of the returnees who have endured long suffering by choosing to remain with Nigeria rather than Cameroon.