The Northern travails

After losing seven children and a husband to Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State, Rukkaya Bello lost all hopes of living in the North. 

Life became unbearable as she was left to wander in the bush alongside other women in the same condition. 

Before the ugly incident, Rukkaya was only familiar with the nomadic lifestyle, which she loved and described as “peaceful.” She and her family were enjoying the peaceful nomadic lifestyle in the company of their cattle. 

Unfortunately, everything took a downward turn within the twinkle of an eye. Hopeless and lost with nothing left for her to hold on to, she decided to journey down to the southwest of Nigeria.

With hopes that a better life awaited her there, she, however, became a beggar in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.     

“I don’t have any children anymore. Boko Haram killed all my seven children and my husband. I was alone and lonely, so I came here,” she said as she narrated her encounter with the deadly terror group back at Doron Baga in Baga Local Government, Borno State.

Rukkaya is one of the many women with different stories of why they migrated from the North in search of greener pastures and safety in the city of Ibadan, Oyo State. Though the women have different stories and different encounters, they share the same pain inflicted on them by bandits and terrorists in the North. 

The insurgency in the North has eaten deep into the region’s fabrics, leaving the people in anguish and despair. Fear and poverty have ripped them from their ancestral homes and the pleasure of being with family.

Over 2 million people have been displaced by insurgents in the North East, according to the European Union (EU). The EU said in October last year that, “more than 2 million people remain displaced from their homes, while hundreds of thousands are living in overpopulated displacement sites without proper access to sanitation and clean water.”

With this, the number of out-of-school children has increased significantly in the region. Food insecurity is another big issue bothering on the shoulders of the people; this has caused malnutrition mostly in children. 

The EU said “more than 3 million people have food insecurity and an equally high number of children are suffering from acute malnutrition. The number of out-of-school children has also increased exponentially”

Rather than remain at the overcrowded Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the North, women like Rukkaya take the daring decision to migrate to the SouthWest without minding what lay ahead. 

Together with their children, these women beg for alms to survive. They depend solely on what they make from the streets. 

In a report published on November 13, 2021, in the Saturday Tribune, one of the women said, “God usually sends Yoruba people to give us food, money and clothes.” 

School is a luxury the parents cannot afford for their children as they are focused on how to feed and survive on the street. Though Human Rights say education at the elementary level is free, the luxury of time is a commodity that women cannot afford. 

These women use the children to attract compassion from passersby. Alhaji Murtala Ahmed, Special Assistant to the Oyo State Governor on Arewa, said the parents do not allow the children to go because they “see them as business tools.”

He said in a report published on February 12, 2022, in the Saturday Tribune, “If they go begging with the children, they make more money because of the sympathy people have for children and that is why they do not allow the children to go to school.”

The parents are less bothered about the future of the children, some of whom are eager to go back to school. For some of the children, they were in school before their education was cut short. 

But in a way, these women have gone through a lot and would use every opportunity to make it easy for themselves; so indeed, the children’s school becomes a luxury they cannot afford. Some of the women still cater for the family members they left behind.  

Increasingly, the activities of bandits and terror groups have heightened significantly, forcing more people to flee their settlements in search of safe havens. The population of immigrants from the Northern region to the South and West in search of menial jobs is increasing on a daily basis. 

Bandits and terrorists daily wreak havoc on armless citizens, and in most cases, women are left to bear the brunt of their ruthless activities. These women are turned into widows, men into widowers, and children into orphans. 

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