I stand with Maiduguri

My lips are quivering, and my hands are shaky as I hear about the clouds over Maiduguri. The city stands tall as the largest trade hub in the North East, with its forebears being the well-respected and well-known Kanem-Borno Empire. The waters are rising above rivers, causing devastating floods over a city that had returned to 97 percent normalcy after an era of insurgency that nearly took its soul.

I shiver from the thoughts racing through my head, remembering the good times in this city of excellent hospitality, which hosted me and over 37 journalists under the aegis of the North East Development Commission and the state government barely two years ago. Now, all we hear is how the United States and the European Union are rolling out millions of dollars in humanitarian relief to a city now under siege. NAFDAC seizes flood-damaged drugs worth over five billion naira in Borno, and women are battling a sanitary crisis after the Maiduguri flood-displaced them.

Governments at home and abroad, financial institutions, the private sector, and well-meaning individuals have been donating to flood victims. With the stark figures of over 400,000 displaced by the flood, one million people affected, the health challenges, and the victims who have perished, I stand resolutely with Maiduguri.

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I stand with the city once known as a hub for Islamic scholarship in West Africa, with tolerance and hospitality as its watchwords, like its famous neem trees.

I stand with the city described as the largest trade hub in the northeast, with lorries waiting in endless lines to carry cargo from Dikwa to neighbouring Cameroon.

I stand with the city bathed in the blood of innocents, insurgents, and passersby, but quickly on the mend—recovering, healing, and moving toward prosperity.

I stand with the city where, two years ago, in the middle of a school for children orphaned by Boko Haram, we sang the Nigerian national anthem as if our lives depended on it.

I stand with the city where hospitality is second nature, where, although I lived in one apartment and was fed three times a day with all the succulent meals and delicacies of the North East, I was still hosted in another apartment, where I was lavished, honoured, and spoiled with my entire team.

Read also: Zulum distributes relief materials to Borno flood victims, receives N7.5bn donations

I stand with the city of proud men and women—spears in their holsters, gorgeous clothes on their backs. I stand in that space where love thrives, and children are born in spite of the challenges of the time.

I stand with the roads I drove through, the people I broke bread with, the traders in the market, the ordinary people who loved and adopted me, and those who took in multiple foreigners to help rebuild their communities.

I stand with stakeholders who have rushed to Maiduguri to see, to help, to assuage, to make things better, and to rescue people who now stand on the precipice of poverty, hunger, and displacement.

I stand with the Red Cross, the UN, philanthropists, international organisations, and the North East Development Commission.

I stand with my brother, Professor Zulum—Governor and citizen, brother and friend—whose face is shielded by his sunglasses, his sorrow and devastation running in his veins for things he cannot decipher.

I stand with his effort to rebuild what he had already rebuilt, starting over from where he had received praise. I stand with Zulum, a teacher and the number one citizen of Borno, along with the government and good people of Borno State, and all who have joined in the rescue and rehabilitation effort.

I stand with all traditional rulers in Borno, led by His Royal Highness, the Shehu of Borno.

I stand with Mr. Vice President, H.E. Kashim Shettima, whose voice is drowned by the sorrow of the devastation of the capital city of a state he once ruled as governor. I stand with him. I stand with them all, as we all should.

We woke up to Maiduguri’s tragedy. It’s hard to take. It’s difficult to swallow. Unbelievable. Floods, displacement, threats to health, houses swept away.

As we stand with them, we pray that soon, Maiduguri will rise again. Amen.