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Question Northern Leaders Must Answer: Who Wins Boko Haram War?
As the cardinal objective of the Islamist Jihadist Organisation called Boko Haram in Nigeria is the eradication of western education, the continuous presence of the aftermath of their operations against school pupils in the north, beginning from the historic abduction of the 276 school girls at Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in southern Borno State, will continue to remind us of the attainment of this objective. This is because as the literary czar, John Pepper Clerk posits: casualties of war are not only those who died at the war front because they are far from the devastating consequences of the war, but rather, those left behind by those who died and those who have irretrievably lost their near and dear ones. Therefore, regardless of the many theories of technical defeat, so long the impact of their many years of activities remains with the region’s educational sector, then, we shall conclude that Boko Haram has achieved its aim to some degree.
Boko Haram, known officially as Jamaat Ahlas-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihad, is an Islamic jihadist organization based in northeastern Nigeria and some parts of Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger. It was founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf but led by Abubakar Shekarau from 2009 when it began its deadly operations in Nigeria. The group, which initial aim was to spread Sunni Islam and destroy Shia Islam in northern Nigeria, later directed its compass towards insurgency operation through which many innocent lives have been claimed and many displaced from their home. Ideologically, the founder was said to have been inspired by Mohammed Marwa, a controversial Islamic preacher who condemned the reading of any book other than the Quran which led Yusuf in an interview in 2009 to express his opposition to western education. In this regard therefore, Boko Haram opposes the westernization of Nigerian society by blaming the multifaceted levels of corruption on education as he demands for the establishment of Islamic state in Nigeria.
Living by its objective, after the first attack on western education in Nigeria which quickly gained global attention with wide condemnation like the American 9/11, the poor handling of the situation by northern leaders and by extension Nigerian government, gave the group greater audacity to unleash further mayhem on innocent school girls and boys. Ranging from the second historic kidnapping of 110 school girls from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGTC) Dapchi on 19 February 2018 in Yobe State to the kidnap of about 300 pupils from a boys’ secondary boarding school on the outskirt of Kankara on 11 December, 2020, many others like kagara in Niger State and Jangebe in Zamfara State followed which made the region a hotbed of abduction of school children.
Evaluating the above so as to determine the winner and loser of the war, we must vividly scrutinize the aftermath of the abduction on the students vis-a-vis the importance of education to national socio-economic development and political stability in a democratic society. Findings have shown that various schools either attacked or not have been affected in many areas such as unnecessary closure of schools, distortion of academic activities, relocation of students and members of staff to other schools, diversion of resources meant for educational development to promote security of lives and properties, withdrawal of students either by themselves or parents from public to private school or to their different homes due to the fear of being kidnapped and its psychological effect on students, teacher and parents.
As the spate of abduction posed the biggest existential threat to the future of school children in the northern Nigeria, the result is beginning to manifest in the re-opening of the schools abduction took place and other neighbouring community schools as many students already stay away from school because of the psychological trauma from previous incidence and its poor handling. For instance, with a population of about 989 that Dapchi school enjoyed before the abduction, only about 314 resumed when the school was partially re-opened with other students either gone ahead to marry or just roaming the villages doing nothing because of the fear of being re-kidnapped due to lack of adequate security. In the case of Chibok, many school buildings were completely burnt down with the houses of fifteen teachers and no attempt was made at renovation until December, 2020 when the state governor directed the complete renovation of the school. The remaining girls that were not kidnapped had to end their education abruptly by staying away from school fulfilling J.P. Clerk’s ‘casualties of war.’ What about the kidnapped girls, we all knew their fates as some were forced into marriage with their captors, some forced to convert into Islam and others forced to join the militant group. Some were even raped and effected with HIV. Yet, northern leaders can sleep and snore just because their children are in better schools abroad.
The first implication of the failure of northern leaders in this direction is already manifesting itself. It is a situation whereby parents will lose interest in sending their children to school. From the schools affected so far, many parents who can afford it already withdrew their children to private schools with relative security while those who cannot afford it prefer their children sit at home and provide them with security instead of taking the risk of being kidnapped while making effort to get western education. This of course, reduces to the barest minimum the number of school children thereby fulfilling the agenda of Boko Haram.
Apart from fulfilling the sect’s philosophy, it also portends great danger to the future of the region in many areas which include lose of economic and human capital of the future. Economic lose talks about the cost of moving or impacting a youth population that lacks skill due to lack of adequate education which will automatically make it difficult to compete with youths from other regions in the area of creativity and innovation. The government which cannot provide the security needed for their schooling today must be ready to bear the brunt of their mediocrity tomorrow when it would have become difficult to provide them with gainful employment.
Socially, as the lack of education, betrays the opportunities to access the privileges that come with it, northern leaders should be charged to go to any length in order to ensure education is given to their children instead of engaging themselves in ventures that will further make the future so bleak for them and further add to the burden of the region. With students who are supposed to be in the classroom now forced into marriage, Nigeria population will soon hit 300 million with many young people able to compete favourably in the technology driven world but without education, this would be difficult to achieve because the needed skill to compete would be absent. As a result of this, criminality will become the order of the day. By then, instead of the population of the young ones serving as blessing, it would become more of a curse. Northern leaders should wake up and stop blaming Nigeria for this woe.
The idea of closing down Chibok school for many years and allow the students to wander away, is a leadership error. The idea of closing GGTC, Dapchi for many months without government and leaders in the region taking steps that will protect their children and their future (education) but prefer them to end their education abruptly, is a betrayal of fatherhood which the region must rise up to because the head of an infant should not bend in a market where there are elders and if it does, it means there are no elders of thought in the market. Northern leaders should wake from their slumber and address education in the north holistically because as Obafemi Awolowo puts: “the children of the poor you failed to train will never let your children have peace.”
Beginning from Sokoto State in April 2012, President Jonathan commenced the first section of the proposed 400 Almajiri schools with classroom, language laboratory, clinic, vocational workshop, living quarters for teachers and others which were completed with state of the art facilities. At the end of his tenure in 2015, the administration has completed about 165 Almajiri schools. In addition to this, nine federal universities were established in all the states that do not have them and the upgrading of two colleges of educations to universities of education in order to bring education to the doorsteps of the Muslim north so as to bridge the educational gap thereto. But let us ask our northern leaders, where are the Almajiri schools today? Many of them have been abandoned by the state governments of northern Nigeria. While the administration of Muhammadu Buhari had abandoned the project of building the 400 Almajiri schools, most of the pupils enrolled in the 165 completed Almajiri schools by Jonathan have left and gone back to the street doing what they know how best to do while their fathers watch on. We should also ask these northern fathers to tell us the state of the upgraded federal universities of education in Kano and Zaria? Yes, federal government might not be perfect in the execution of these policies, it is the duty of state government to continue to partner with government until they are perfected.
I know that many articles must have been written and seen by the people concerned but as this will serve as a reminder, its content should not be taken for granted. Among the schools ravaged by Boko Haram, how many of them have been completely renovated and their students fully brought back? At a point, the Borno State Government had to close down female boarding schools in 25 local government areas outside Maiduguri, the state capital with the aim of forestalling abduction while some schools were relocated without relocating the students. The idea of government closing down community schools or relocating them to the cities at the detriment of the students in the community is not a welcome development because everybody deserves equal access to education. Government presence shouldn’t be domiciled only in the state capital leaving other communities at their own mercies.
In order to ensure a consistent development of the country’s educational sector, the Federal Government formulated a policy about 25 years ago that gave some preference to candidates seeking admission into universities across the country from states that are regarded as educationally less developed. As the states involve include all the states in the north and some from the south, such consideration which include putting cut-off marks into unity schools at 134 average for the south and as low as 2 marks for some states in the north is not expected to continue forever. As one of the beauties and gifts nature bestows on children is the presumption of their safety in the presence of their parents, why will a father (government) because of worldly pursuit betray such a trust and fail to secure these God’s gifts?
As Nigeria is an amalgamation of many nations with a central government, each component unit (state) should make it a duty to develop itself in order to be able to compete favourably with others and also be accountable for the money it receives from federal purse. This was the practice at independence when we operated the British-styled “Westminster” Parliamentary system where each region developed at its own pace. Northern leaders should go back to drawing board. They should rebuild all the schools burnt and destroyed by Boko Haram and equip them with state of the art facilities. They should put up enough security that will guarantee the safety of students and ensure their confidence is built with incentives and assurance. The Almajiri schools built by Jonathan should be effectively managed by state governments and come up with more so as to keep children off the street during school hours. Deliberate effort must be put in place to take care of school children so as to be able to compete favourably tomorrow in the creativity the world brings because as Kofi Annan puts: “any society that does not succeed in tapping into the energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind.”
Instead of conducting mass wedding for boys and girls of school age and tag it as achievement, they should endeavour to send them to school so they will be able to be responsible members of the society that can take care of their families. They should know that so long any of the schools invaded and degraded by Boko Haram remains in dilapidated state, so long any child in any of these schools refused to make it back to school due to lack of safety, so long any school is closed down as a result of Boko Haram’s invasion, then the sect has won the battle. Every state should strengthen local security that will protect their children in school. The habit of closing down school for the fear of Boko Haram should stop forthwith.
Olushola Omogbehin a public affairs analyst Writes from Abuja Nigeria omogbehino@yahoo.com 08069220040
