Yabawa Alkali Kolo

Biography & Notes

Hajiya Yabawa Kolo is a prominent Borno State public servant and humanitarian administrator who has played a significant role in women’s affairs, emergency management, and the humanitarian response to the Boko Haram insurgency and its consequences in northeastern Nigeria. Her public service career included work with the Borno State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, where she served as Director of Women Affairs. In that capacity, she was involved in programmes aimed at improving the welfare and economic independence of women, particularly rural women and women affected by displacement. She advocated vocational training, entrepreneurship, agriculture, tailoring, soap making, knitting and micro-credit opportunities to help women become economically self-reliant.

Her humanitarian work became particularly prominent through her leadership of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). By 2018, she was serving as the agency's Executive Chairperson, a position in which she represented Borno in national and international humanitarian engagements, including a UNHCR high-level conference. She became responsible for coordinating emergency responses to the enormous humanitarian consequences of insurgency, including displacement, food insecurity, fires in IDP camps, flooding and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. During the height of the crisis, she repeatedly called for greater humanitarian assistance as SEMA struggled to meet the needs of thousands of newly displaced people across communities such as Baga, Cross Kauwa, Kukawa, Marte, Guzamala, Dikwa, Bama, Gwoza and Rann.

Under her leadership, SEMA participated in the distribution of food and non-food relief materials to displaced and vulnerable communities. During the COVID-19 period, for example, she supervised the distribution of food items to thousands of households, including vulnerable families in Maiduguri. She also responded to devastating fires in IDP camps, providing emergency assistance while advocating for safer cooking practices and improved fire prevention among displaced populations.

One of the major areas associated with her tenure was the return and resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). As Director-General of SEMA, she emphasized that returns should be voluntary, dignified and consistent with international humanitarian standards, including the Kampala Convention. By December 2021, she reported that approximately 700,000 displaced persons had been resettled from several official camps back to communities, while SEMA also supported more than 100 children orphaned by the insurgency to access education. In 2022, she continued to oversee humanitarian interventions and the gradual closure of remaining IDP camps as displaced families were assisted to return to their ancestral communities.

Her administration also dealt with natural disasters affecting Borno. In 2022, she reported that flooding across 14 local government areas had displaced more than 16,000 people, while houses, farmland and public facilities were damaged. SEMA under her leadership worked with federal agencies such as NEMA and the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) to provide relief materials and support the resettlement and recovery of affected communities.

In May 2023, after approximately five and a half years in senior leadership of Borno's emergency-management system, Yabawa Kolo handed over the affairs of SEMA following the dissolution of the governing boards and executive leadership of state agencies. At the time, she stated that the agency had helped repatriate about 3,500 refugees from Niger, Cameroon and Chad and resettle close to one million internally displaced persons into liberated communities during the period. She credited the achievements to the cooperation of the Borno State Government, security agencies, humanitarian organisations, SEMA staff and other stakeholders.

Beyond her administrative responsibilities, Yabawa Kolo has been recognized for her leadership in a difficult humanitarian environment. A development-sector study examining women in leadership specifically highlighted her experience as head of Borno SEMA and noted improvements in her leadership, stakeholder engagement and ability to strengthen her staff following leadership training.

In summary, Hajiya Yabawa Kolo's public-service legacy is closely associated with three major areas: women's empowerment, humanitarian emergency management, and the resettlement and rehabilitation of communities affected by the insurgency in Borno State. Her career placed her at the centre of some of the most difficult humanitarian challenges faced by Borno during the insurgency, where she worked with government institutions, security agencies, national humanitarian bodies and international partners to provide relief and support the return of displaced people.