Governor Buni and the SOLID Pathway: Building durable solutions for displacement in Yobe State, by Suleiman Dauda
Following the SOLID project approval on 7th August 2025 by the World Bank Board, experts explained that the project provides a reflection on a timely, and strong case for Nigeria’s urgent shift from short-cycle humanitarian interventions toward development-led recovery. In line UN Action agenda on Internal Displacement, which emphasises the reality that protracted displacement is not just a humanitarian emergency; it is an urban, economic, and climate challenge rolled into one. For instance, in Northern Nigeria, years of insurgency, banditry and disasters have left millions of citizens uprooted, reshaping urban growth and stretching fragile infrastructure.
The SOLID Project, a World Bank-supported initiative is the right paradigm. By marrying climate-resilient infrastructure with livelihoods and social cohesion, SOLID recognises that displacement cannot be solved by temporary relief. It requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society response that blends roads, water, schools, and health facilities with inclusive planning, cooperative support, and climate-smart agriculture. This avoids the common fallacy of believing that “if we build infrastructure, communities will automatically thrive.” Instead, it promotes the building of communities where infrastructure, livelihoods, and social bonds reinforce each other.
Yet, the true measure of durable solution vision lies in local leadership. In Yobe State, His Excellency, Hon. (Dr) Mai Mala Buni, CON, the Executive Governor of Yobe State has distinguished the State as a national frontrunner in Durable Solution. Through his foresight, Yobe has fulfilled all the global durable solution commitment and readiness criteria; domesticating the IDP Policy, developing a State Action Plan on Internal Displacement, constituting a multi-stakeholder Policy Advisory Committee, established State Security Planning and Coordination Group, and provided over 12% in 2025 state budget to support solution focused inclusive development and serve as a catalytic fund to attract donor and private sector financing. These actions are not symbolic; they are the hard governance mechanics; fiscal discipline, institutional readiness, and political will that turn aspirations into durable solutions.
In Yobe, where 167,350 IDPs and rapid peri-urban growth around Damaturu present acute pressures, the SOLID Project aligns seamlessly with the State Action Plan on Durable Solutions. The opportunities before Yobe State under the SOLID Project are transformative. One of the most immediate is the potential for area-based investments, where roads, drainage systems, waste management facilities, and markets are bundled within the same wards.
By approaching development in this integrated way, the state can deliver visible improvements that communities will quickly feel, reducing health and flood risks while stimulating commerce.
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Livelihoods, too, must be directly linked to markets. Strengthening cooperatives in viable value chains such as grains, livestock, and construction inputs, while complementing them with micro-finance and SME services, will create pathways from subsistence to sustainability. This approach ensures that support is not only about survival but about building durable economic independence.
In a context shaped by conflict, no intervention can ignore the imperatives of safety and dignity. Embedding the Security Planning and Coordination Group’s strategies and integrating GBV safeguards across all works and community engagements will ensure that development is not only delivered but also protected from new risks and vulnerabilities.
Also, success must be measured. By deploying a simple but effective results and accountability dashboard that tracks outputs such as kilometers of roads, number of water points, and market rehabilitations alongside outcomes like household incomes, school attendance, and community cohesion. The state can keep government, partners, and citizens aligned. This will also reinforce transparency and build trust, ensuring that progress is visible, verifiable, and owned by the people.
Governor Buni’s bold, solution-focused agenda has thus set the stage for Yobe to transform displacement from a cycle of dependency into an opportunity for resilience and recovery. If Yobe continues to pair governance strength with bundled, ward-level investments, SOLID will not remain an abstract vision.
It will deliver climate-resilient, inclusive growth that IDPs and host communities can feel in their daily lives. In doing so, Governor Mai Mala Buni will have inscribed his golden name as the leader who turned the promise of durable solutions into a lived reality for his people.
Suleiman Dauda
State Project Coordinator
Yobe SOLID Project
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