The Incredible Story of a Bishop Who Built a Mosque, 86 Housing Units, School, for IDPs in Adamawa

News Rendezvous

Nigeria's Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, the Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, said that he would continue to pray that one day Muslims would build a church for Christians.

Bishop Kukah made this remarks at the commissioning of 86 housing units with a church and mosque built at the Sangere-Marghi village of Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State.

The 86 housing units was built by the Catholic Bishop of Yola diocese, Bishop Dami Mamza specifically for the Internally Displaced Persons that the church has housed since boko haram overran about seven local governments in the northern part of Adamawa state in 2014.

Kukah said, "The significance of building the housing estate and the mosque should not be lost.

“Nigerians should learn to practice religion of tolerance and love for their neighbour.

“It is important that Christians and Muslims appreciate what the Diocese of Yola has done today."

As the challenges of insecurity hightens in Nigeria and the attendant debilitating consequences of the multifaceted security nightmare of killer armed bandits in north central and north west Nigeria, to the marauding Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast, to the activities of of the killer Herdsmen in the middle belt region of Nigeria, and the widespread kidnappings, among several other security worries, that has left millions of nigerians homeless, hungry and socially dislocated.

While the nightmare persist, one man has been at the vanguard of finding solutions and help for those who have been left to bare the brunt of the fallout from the activities of the Gunmen, as Bishop Dami Mamza has been housing and taking care of over 7000 IDPs since 2014.

And now, he has gone a step further, and built about 86 housing units, school, Mosque and church, for those who could not go back home because their ancestral homes are at the fringes of the Sambisa forest.

The Daily Rendezvous caught up with Bishop Dami Mamza who was not only commissioning 86 housing units for internally displaced persons, with Mosque and church but was also marking his 25th Priestly ordination and his 10th Episcopal ordination, to chronicle his journey with the IDPs which culminated in the building of the housing units.

During the interview, Mamza, took a swipe at the failing security situation of the country, dismissing Sheikh Abubakar Gumi's call for negotiations with bandits as suspicious while calling in the Nigerian government to engage the services of mercenaries to help address the country's security situation as the country's battle against insurgency is full of too many questions than answers.

 

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

The media was awashed with the commissioning of 86 housing units for IDPs, an unusual move by a priest, give us a clue into how this all started leading up to this moment?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

Well, it all started in September 2014, when the first three local governments in northern Adamawa were overran by the boko haram insurgents.

I was then at the Catholic Bishops conference in Warri when I received a call informing me that Michika, Madagali, Mubi and later on Gombi, were overran by the boko haram insurgents and that our church was flooded with internally displaced persons.

I remembered leaving the meeting half way to return to Yola. 

Meanwhile, I have instructed the Coordinator of Justice, Development and Peace, Yola Diocese, Rev. Father Morris Kwoiranga, to open the doors of the cathedral in order to accommodate as many people that were in need of shelter and food. We had to close down our schools, the cathchecal center. We also had to open up our old cathedral, our pastoral center and so many institutions that we have within Jimeta to house as many internally displaced persons, knocking on our doors.

They came in their large numbers, they were looking for shelter, they were looking for food and I instructed that any money available even if it belongs to somebody, should be used to provide food for the internally displaced, and that was how it all began.

So, at a certain stage, we had about 3700 IDPs residing within St. Theresa Cathedral. But again, there were people that were living within the town but lacked the capacity to support themselves. Take for example, a person who earns N40,000 only at th end of the month but has about 50 IDPs from his village residing in his house because he is the only person from their village that they know.

So, such people were coming in to get food or financial support. Since then, after every two weeks, for about three years, we have been inviting these displaced persons to what became a reutine food distribution exercise every two weeks.

Based on our records, about 7500 households were beneficiaries of the food distribution for these three years. I can recount that after every two weeks, we distribute over 500 bags of maize. We have been doing that faithfully without a fail until northern Adamawa was recaptured and even after that we continued with the exercise dependant on the needs on ground.

That was how we started. On the other hand, we have those in camps. We were responsible for their feeding, we feed them three times a day, provided them with shelter and even took care of their medical bills, because we even had to open a clinic here and requested for some volunteer medical practitioners including Doctors and nurses to come around to help in providing some services.

We had groups like the Daughters of Charity, who came all the way from Port Harcourt, and provided services, attending to the medical needs of some of the patients.

So that is what we have been doing in the last seven years working with the IDPs.

When most of local governments in northern Adamawa were recaptured, most of the IDPs gradually returned to their communities until. Those that were left at our camps were those who have their houses at the fringes of the Sambisa Forest and these are communities where the boko haram insurgents are still active and the communities are still susceptible to boko haram intermittent attacks.

I remember some of our IDPs that returned, about 17 of them were killed in 2015. You have to willingly choose to return, no one can force you but we advised some of them to assess the situation first before making those decisions but some of them were so home sick and would not stay.

Some of the IDPs in our camps, when they heard about their death,  quickly changed their minds about returning home. 

These 86 families have been with us since then.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

How did you get the idea for the housing Units?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

It was in 2019, one night, that I started thinking, how long would we sustain the situation of the IDPs and take care of them? Besides, we were having donors fatigue and the IDPs were on the one hand tired of living at the camps, so there has to be a way out.

So, I thought to myself, whether it would be possible to build, even if it would be just simple houses for them to live in as their homes? But I asked myself, where do I get the resources to do this, I had no money, no land, nothing.

So, I decided to approach government for a land with the thought in my mind that even if it is a round hut that we would build upon it, it would go a long way in easing their pains. 

So, the governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, graciously and willingly offered about 10 hecters of land for the resettlement of these IDPs at Sengere, Marghi.

So, here was I with land, no money to build anything but I again decided to consult with my main sponsors, Missio, a German-based Catholic organization, which supports humanitarian causes across the world and in support of the Catholic Church too.

They have been the ones that have been supporting our IDPs, let me say about 99% of the feeding of our IDPs have been funded by them.

So, I did share the idea with them and they were inquisitive because at a certain stage, the government gave the impression that there were no IDPs in Adamawa state, so, they from the outside world heard about it, the asked me, so Bishop, how do you still have IDPs? I had to tell them that the impression was false, we still have IDPs even though some of them were not in camps but there are quite a good number of them living in uncompleted buildings and in dire need of support and this is the idea, I have conceived concerning them.

So, I wrote a proposal and sent to them and they were so impressed. In January, 2020, the entire management of Missio came to Adamawa state, about eight of them, and they were able to have an interaction with the governor.

I took them to the site, in Sangere, Marghi, even though there was a school there but none of the classes had roof on them and all the children of the IDPS, were in our school and our school is a very good school, so I asked them whether it was possible that they support a school project of twelve classrooms of two streams for all the classes because they have already approved funds for the housing units because my point is that if we build houses for them, and if their children have no access to school, then we might be raising another set of children that would be illiterates and they asked that it should be put into writing, that I did and at the end of the day, they approved it.

That was how we started the building of the houses and the school almost at the same time.

About 95% of the IDPs are Christians and only about five percent of the IDPs are Muslims, I also asked for funds to build Church and it was approved and because of the Coronavirus Pandemic, we could not have money for the Mosque building, so we sourced it from our local contributions within the Catholic diocese of Yola.

Because, I was thinking about the 5% of our IDPS that are Muslims, how would they feel after moving to the site and there is a church and they don't have a place to worship?

So, we did everything and here we are, about three weeks ago we moved them to the place and last week we successfully commissioned the project.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

How Tasking was the Process of implementing this project from its inception to completion?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

Each of these structures have their own expenses, but we have not yet done a formal summation of the entire cost but I can give you an idea. 

The school for example cost roughly about N30 million naira, we have spent about N107 million in building the houses, and about N5 million for the Mosque building.

It was that cheap, because it was a very direct labour, we worked with my engineer to accomplish this.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

The northeast region has been pummelled by insurgency and other security nightmares, being a first hand contact person with the IDPs, what steps would you advise government to take in addressing the security crisis bedevilling the region?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

Now, it is clear that the security situation in the country has gone very bad and is getting worst on a daily basis. In fact, the north east and places like Adamawa state, have been more peaceful than places in the north west, but I think there are a lot of things that government need to do, our government needed to rise to its own responsibility and do the right thing.

Unfortunately, our politicians are more concerned about 2023 than the security situation of the country. If our politicians do not put security issues first before their ambition for 2023, I wonder whether if Nigeria does not exist, who are they going to rule over?

There is an urgent need for government at all levels to take the issue of security very seriously. Now in Nigeria, everyone is afraid and no one can sleep with their eyes closed, so our government need to do more than it is already doing right now.

The military also need to do better and I think something is wrong somewhere with the way security issues are handled. They are always complaining about lack of equipment but the annual budget for defense speaks to the contrary because it is always huge, so something is wrong.

The North East Development Commission should be embarking on projects like the one we just did, but one wonders what they do at all. We don't know at all, they are just living there in Abuja doing nothing. As a matter of fact, why is the headquarters of the commission not here in the north east but there in Abuja? But the bottom line is that, we are not feeling their impact, I can't see anything being done by them. There are many international bodies and groups working here and we are feeling their impact.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

While you and other bodies have been working hard to address the security situation in the country and the subsequent humanitarian situation that accompany the general level of insecurity, some Nigerians have been offering suggestions as to the way forward, notable among them is that of Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, who has gone round advocating for negotiations with the armed bandits, what is your take on his position?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

In the first place, there is no sincerity in Sheikh Abubakar Gumi's position or what he is suggesting as a solution.

Nobody knows the heart of Gumi or why he is doing what he is doing, what he is suggesting will take us no where.

There is definitely a link between Sheikh Gumi and the bandits, so, what is the link between Gumi and the bandits and how did he get into contact with them? This is the question that need to be investigated and answered.

He is not the only Sheikh in Nigeria or Islamic cleric, yet he has taken so much interest in the cause of the bandits and going about offering explanation to justify the actions of the bandits?

I don't see any sincerity in the actions of Gumi  and am very suspicious of the role he is playing and only God knows what he is doing.

In the first place, he has not condemned what they are doing, he is only blaming the government for not giving them this or that, no matter how irresponsible a government is, no one has the right to go about taking other people's lives and you cannot come our as a religious person to support their actions of the people who go about taking lives.

You cannot support someone going into banditary, killing, maiming, abducting and traumatising people and you as a religious leader, would stand to rationalise and explain their actions.

Are they the only people without a job in Nigeria? Are they the only people with grievances against the government and against what is happening in the country? Myself, I have problem with what Gumi and many Nigerians have problem with that.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

Then what would you prefer as a solution to the myriads of security problems of our country?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

I would advise the Nigerian government to hire mercenaries. 

We have reached a point where our government should say we can no longer handle this problem alone and we should be sincere and with all sense of humility to it.

The governor of Borno state, Zulum said, we should look for mercenaries, because even our military that are fighting this war, there is no sincerity in them. We cannot say that they are not trying but it is obvious that there are issues.

I have a relations, a soldier, who was wounded by the boko haram insurgents some few weeks ago, he was abandoned and had to be treated by the family, so we don't know what is happening here in our country.

The issue is that even those fighting this war at top echelon of this country beginning from the politicians, the military top leaders, religious leaders, among others, are not sincere.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

What message were you trying to drive home when you build a Mosque, especially in a country like Nigeria that is deeply divided on the basis of religion?

Bishop Dami Mamza:

In building this mosque, I know it has generated a lot of comments,

some of them positive and some negative, from both Christians and Muslims but my message is very simple, we have no option but to live together as brothers and sisters in one family, more importantly as Nigerians. 

When I was taking care of the IDPs, I never discriminated, when I built the houses, I never discriminated, when building the schools, I never discriminated, so why should I now descriminate based on worship centers?

To me, it is a matter of justice. I have built a church for one group, I should also build a Mosque for the other group. I believe that would go a long way in strengthening the bond of unity in the housing units and it would also serve as a lesson to other religious leaders in the coutry that religion is a matter of choice.

That, if for instance one decides to convert to another religion one wants, no one should threaten, intimidate or terrorise you.

I believe we serve the same God, and when they all go in to pray, they would pray for Nigeria and for me, irrespective of their places of worship. There are people who felt that I should not have done that as a catholic priest, but it is my choice and decision to make.

The problem in our country is that, we use religion as the basis to determine relationship, association, etc. In as much as, conversion from one religion into another is not respected, we would continue to have problems.

It only means that there is no freedom of worship and Nigeria is still a secular state.

Let's put Nigeria first and live together in peace and Unity.

DAILY RENDEZVOUS:

Thanks sir for the audience

Bishop Dami Mamza:

You are welcome