Baga fish market: Economic hub of North East struggling back to life

…Years of devastation by insurgency seemingly over

…But concerns remain over leadership tussle among dealers

Until 2014, Baga International fish market was a beehive of economic activities. Over 50 trucks loaded with fish used to berth in this market weekly from the Lake Chad shores of fishing communities of Baga and Gamboru in Nigeria, and border communities of Niger Republic.

Thousands of youths used to rely heavily on this market to earn a living for themselves as truck loaders, middlemen, and cleaners. It was also a centre of trade in different commodities, including used cartons, ropes, and other essential food trade.

This economic hub also served as big revenue source to Borno State government. The market attracted more than 3,000 people daily including traders, fish merchants, food vendors, workers and drivers.

Calamitous occurrences over the last one decade have painted two sharply contrasting portraits of the Baga Road international fish market, Maiduguri, which has had grave consequences on the economy of not only Borno State, but, substantially, the far Northeast. The market is today a shadow of its former self.

Ahmadu Baba, a fish merchant, described the present state of the market as worrisome. “Honestly, this market used to be a Mecca in the entire north where people come to get fish. Unfortunately, the market is now struggling as a result of many incidents that have happened.

Ahmadu also said that since time the immemorial, Borno has been famous for fish trade, with which it carved a niche for itself between the hinterland of Nigeria and the neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon. He noted that recent conflicts have gravely affected the market.

“Insurgency has turned millionaire into beggars; as you can see it, the market is not only dry but things are not moving the way they used to; just a mere two to three trucks of the commodity trickle in weekly from three axis.

Modu Suleiman, another fish merchant, said that many people left the markets due to series of clashes between military and terrorists at the heat of Boko Haram insurgency in 2013.

“I have spent 26 years in this market; we have seen all but thanks be to Allah who sustained our lives; if you were in Maiduguri between 2012 to 2016, this market suffered several attacks. Many of our members were killed, some others were arrested by one military officer called “Yellow” without any connection with Boko-Haram.

“So, many of our members left Maiduguri to Yola in Adamawa due to insecurity. Many lost their lives and their capital. I lost everything I had worked for in 2014. But, now God helped me raise some money and I sold my house to reinvest. Many people have left this market.”

Collaborating, Yusuf Saidu, a trader, noted that apart from the Baga International Fish Market at the Lake Chad shore town of Baga in Kukawa Local Government Area of the state, huge numbers of trailers, often in hundreds, from the Nigerien, Cameroonian and Chadian shores of Lake Chad daily flood the Baga Road and Gamboru fish markets in Maiduguri with smoked fish, enroute the hinterland of Nigeria down to the coastal cities of Lagos, Benue, Enugu, Asaba and Port Harcourt.

In June 2016, a suicide bomber hit the market hard on a hot afternoon leading to death of 12 people; that incident made thousands of people flee the market for their dear lives to different parts of the country and they never returned to fish business.

This incident and previous attacks have affected the fish market and by extension the economic activities in the areas.

The insurgency, most especially at its peak in 2014, ravaged the Borno fish business, along with the age-old fame and pride Borno enjoyed over the ages.

Abdu Kirma, a resident of Baga, said: “The insurgents did not only kill a large population of the fishermen and traders, they also chased majority of the fishing communities out of the Lake Chad shores to IDP camps in Maiduguri and other locations across Nigeria.”

The invasion of the communities by Boko Haram rendered inaccessible all the trading routes, but also besieged, and locked for business as usual, all the once-bubbling fishing locations of the Lake.

Some believe that internal wrangling among the leadership of the Fish Market Association worsened the otherwise thriving fish business.

The Baga leadership at a point got enmeshed in crisis, leading to fractionalisation of leadership which also impacted negatively on the activities in the area.

Recently, the youth fish traders protested and alleged that the leadership of the main association, under the Chairmanship of Abacha Mandalama, had ‘refused’ to conduct the election for a new leader for the last 24 years.

Read also: Boko-Haram, ISWAP takes over West Africa biggest fish market

The leader of the youth group, Bukar Abacha, alleged in an interview with newsmen after the protest that the union leaders remitted N100m out of the N3bn revenue collected from them to the state government.

Abacha said, “In the last two years, they (the Mandalama-chaired leadership) have collected about N3bn revenue from fish sellers and transporters, but remitted only about N100m to the state government coffers.

“There has also not been any election for new leadership of the association in the last 24 years.”

According to Abacha, they (the Mandalama-led leadership) have turned the leadership into a family affair, appointing anybody they feel like to any position.

Also, Lambata Haliru, leader of a faction, told BusinessDay that the disagreement among the leaders made several people leave Hhadeja in Jigawa, Gasau and Yola in Adamawa.

“We’ve been to court, and the problem is with the government; our chairman has overstayed, like 20 years thereabout, and he has refused to step down. That was why we took the issue to court to find out the truth.

“Normally, he’s supposed to step down after four years, and if you’re re-elected, then it will sum up to eight years, and you are expected to step down after eight years, but he refused to step down. This has a negative impact on the market,” he said.

He pointed out that the government has done nothing yet and has refused to address the problem concern, but the case is before the court.

According to him, “It is time to come together and sit up on this our fish business, because this is the same business our fathers and uncles were doing and it’s all we have and if we allow it to be destroyed nobody will come to our aid except God; and if we work together and the government sees our collective effort, they will also help us. It’s a lack of working together that is drawing us backwards in this fish business,” he said.

Fish business caught in net of Boko-Haram crisis

The Baga fish market in Maiduguri, Borno State has since lost its bourgeoning status as the major transit camp of ‘fish sorting and packaging’ along Nigeria’s northeast coastal region which hitherto provided countless job opportunities to people as well as unlimited and affordable access to nutritious meal to the people leaving within the region and in the other parts of the country.

In a twinkle of an eye, the famous Borno fish business and economy, became a once-upon-a-time story, reducing the trade to just a daily trickle of one, two or three trucks of fish from the Bagas and other sections of the Lake Chad with boundaries with Maiduguri.

Mohammed Abakar explained they used to purchase fish from three different places in large quantities, noting that things are difficult now and lack of money is really affecting the business.

“Fish business is very expensive. It very expensive because of high transportation, and other issues that have really made the fish business very expensive now.

“The insecurity has affected fishermen in Baga and its environs. They used to sell fish to us in large quantities, but now honestly, the supply has reduced to three trucks in a week. So, the quantity of supply that gets to us is small,” he said.

Saleh Mansur, another fish dealer, disclosed that “The way we sell to customers now has changed, especially customers coming from different parts of the state, like the Yoruba, Igbos, Jukim, Tiv, Idoma and other tribes”.

Saleh added that buyers often send money to the dealers in the market.

“Customers that want to buy will have to send their money, then we will send the fish to them. But some people are trustworthy; they agree with us on credit, then we will also send them the fish when we receive the payment; now they don’t come as often as they used to do before.

“Additionally, transportation costs have significantly increased, further affecting our profit margins. Although people still engage in buying and selling, the volume of trade has reduced due to the insecurity situation,” he said.

Traders lament insecurity, transportation challenges

Bukar Ali Bulama, a fish trader who buys fish in bulk and supplies them to various locations, mainly south-south and southeast pointed out that the current fish market is unfavourable, and that the business environment has drastically changed.

“Previously, a carton of fish cost ₦60,000, but now the price has doubled to ₦120,000. We often rely on credit to sustain our business operations,” Bulama said

He explained that some of them have been in the business for almost 30 years, sourcing fish from Niger, Chad, Baga, and Gamboru. The fish from Chad is generally more affordable, but it is not always available due to poor road conditions.

“One of the major challenges we face is insecurity, as the insurgency in the state has made transportation risky. Many traders and suppliers are reluctant to ply the road, leading to a decline in fish supply to Maiduguri. They prefer to go to Yola or Yobe State due to the safety of commuters and the goods because many drivers were killed and some others abducted on the road. So, insecurity and cost of transportation is major challenges killing fish business.

“In 2013, I had sufficient capital to run my business smoothly, and everything was progressing well. However, insurgents struck, and today, many of us are financially unstable, and it has become a major challenge, making it difficult to sustain our business and meet daily needs.

“The economic downturn has also affected my personal life. As business profits have declined, I have struggled to meet financial obligations, including my children’s school fees. I was forced to transfer them from a private to a public school due to financial constraints.”

Fish business as oxygen for terrorists

The Boko Haram insurgents, later joined by ISWAP terrorists, seized and controlled virtually the entire fish business, converting it into their main source of revenue across the entire Nigerian section of the Lake.

They became the businessmen themselves and forced the fishermen to pay revenue to access their fishing ponds, fish and sell their catch. The amount of the revenue is determined by the quantity of the catch.

The terrorists buy in bulk and transport same in huge numbers of trucks in a laundered form of trade.

The terrorists in the fish business are now in the form of either ‘partners in business’ or ‘partners in crime’, depending on the facts and figures one uses to report the relationship.

Authoritative sources confirm that the long chain of fish-loaded trucks from Baga International Market and other fish markets along the Lake’s shores, many of them diverting from the Baga-Maiduguri to Baga-Diffa (Niger Republic)-Geidam (Yobe State) route actually belong to security agencies, using some fish businessmen as fronts.

Borno can boost revenue through fish if…

Abubakar Mohammed Kareto, a Public Affairs analyst, explained that the Baga Fish Market is Nigeria’s largest fish market, “Baga Fish is unique and generally accepted across all tribes and ethnicity in Nigeria and beyond,” he said.

He stressed that the market was badly affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.

“Baga fish market is known for its dried fish sourced from natural waters, attracting thousands of traders from within and outside the country, and significantly contributing to the GDP of Borno State and Nigeria as a whole. Unfortunately, the prolonged insurgency crisis has hit hard both fishermen and traders. This has resulted in a significant number of people losing their employment and capital and the state losing a significant amount of revenue.

He noted that business activities started in Baga Fish Market in Maiduguri around 2022, but the traders are currently struggling to get back to the business.

“I will appeal to the federal government and military to ensure the safety of the fishing community around the Lake Chad region, which are major suppliers of the fish at Baga Market, although people in Kukawa LGA experience some relative peace. My appeal is to ensure the general area is safe, and the security of lives is guaranteed around Lake Chad. It will help to regain the lost glory of the biggest fish markets in the region,

Abubakar charged the federal and state governments to prioritise the measures that tackle the insecurity bedevilling the whole region.

“I think their measures include providing financial assistance to fish marketers at the Baga Fish Market, collaborating with security agencies to streamline the transportation of fish from fishing communities around Lake Chad region and Kukawa to the market, and providing enhanced fishing methods and complete security to these communities. The government should put strong mechanisms on the ground to prevent leakages in terms of tax collection for the growth of the economy of the state,”Kareto advised.