Why Zulum is keen on Baga Governor returns after staying two nights, receiving 1000 returnees

Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum returned to Maiduguri, the state capital, on Sunday after spending two nights in Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area of Northern Borno during which he received over 1,000 internally displaced persons who willingly returned to Baga town.

The governor was in Baga from Friday to Sunday to supervise ongoing efforts towards returning residents.

Zulum’s repeated trips to Baga and desire to resettle communities there are part of his administration’s strategies to cut Boko Haram’s long use of the commercial town as the main transit for undertaking major fishing trade and tax administration from which the insurgents fund their murderous activities.

Baga, Borno’s largest fishing community in the shores of the Lake Chad, has waterways linking Nigeria with neighboring countries through which fish could be exported in exchange for arms. Baga is considered strategic to Boko Haram’s operation. Reoccupation by residents would deny Boko Haram a major access to funding and import of foreign fighters and weapons through waterways.

Baga was the headquarters of the Multinational Joint Task Force, made up of soldiers from Nigeria, when the task force was established in the 90s. The Nigerian Navy established a major base to secure international waterways.

In January 2015, Boko Haram struck in Baga; the incident the media considered the sect’s deadliest attack in Borno State, killing an estimated 2,000 persons in a bid to seize the town. Soldiers of Nigeria, Chad and Niger Republic, in the Multinational Joint Task Force, reclaimed Baga days, for which the then President Goodluck Jonathan paid a surprise visit to Baga in February 2015, landing on military chopper, dressed in military camouflage.

Boko Haram again took over Baga about 21 months ago, with most of the residents taking refuge in Monguno and Maiduguri. The insurgents, however, allowed some residents who wished to pay taxes while doing fish businesses. The insurgents controlled all fishing businesses and the waterways for export, ferrying fighters and weapons. From Baga, they controlled operations around the Lake Chad shores.

The Nigerian soldiers reclaimed Baga months back, but the place remained controversial with allegations of whether it was the military or Boko Haram that was in control of the town.

Zulum’s attempt to enter Baga in July was not successful following shots directed at his convoy with controversy surrounding who fired the shots. There were allegations that some interest groups did not want communities to return to Baga.

Defiant Governor Zulum set up a committee headed by the gallant Commissioner for Justice, Kaka Shehu Lawan, with the mandate to rebuild and resettle willing residents.

As a followup, the governor led a delegation to Baga on Friday. He attended juma’at prayers held there for the first time in nearly two years.

In the governor’s convoy were the senator representing Northern Borno, Abubakar Kyari; the House of Representatives’ members representing Marte, Monguno,

Nganzai, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and that of Mobbar, Kukawa, Guzamala, Abadam Federal Constituencies, Bukar Gana Kareto.

The speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Abdulkarim Lawan; the chairman of the Baga Resettlement Committee and the Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Kaka Shehu Lawan and some other top government officials were on the trip.

Zulum undertook a tour of reconstruction works going on in Baga, commending the resettlement committee he set up, for quality and speed of work.

Zulum also addressed the returnees in the town, urging them to be law abiding and to cooperate with security agencies in maintaining law and order.

Each of the 1,000 returnees was given a cash of N10,000 as emergency relief. Every adult member of a household also received one bag of rice, one bag of maize grain, one bag of beans and 3 liters of cooking oil.

Governor Zulum, who went to Baga by military chopper, decided to return by road, plying the Maiduguri-Baga route alongside other government officials.