While in a chat with our correspondent, Mr. Ifeanyi Kalu, now firmly living in the village, relayed the state of Maiduguri metropolis, the capital of Borno State, the hitherto epicenter of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency, as well as other adjoining council areas.
A resident of the Borno State capital in the late 70s and early 80a, spending almost two decades in the once peaceful state, where he majored in furniture making, producing all kinds of furniture, ranging from exquisite chairs, various kinds of beds, among others, Mr Kalu, a relative of our correspondent, spoke glowingly of Maiduguri as truly the Home of Peace, as various ethnic groups lived in harmony.
While admitting pockets of violence here and there then which he acknowledged were not peculiar to Borno State, he said people lived peacefully devoid of any form of insurgency.
“Maiduguri and in fact Borno State was something of good to talk about then,” he said.
“I was one of the big time furniture makers and people of different ethnic groups lived together in peace and the kind of news we hear now was not there then.
“You can travel and come back at any time without fear of any Boko Haram; of course there was nothing like that then. We may have some issues here and there occasionally then but Borno was not isolated,” he said.
Although since he left the city in late 80s, it hasn’t been the same in terms of peace, the ambiance and tranquility known to have pervaded not only Maiduguri but the entire Borno State were truncated in 2002 following the emergence of Boko Haram sect, a radical Islamic group known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid- Da’wah wa’l-Jihād founded by Mohammed Yusuf in the Borno State capital.
The sect changed the narrative in the state and the entire North East as adjoining states and Cameroon, as well as Chad, were not left out of the target areas of the dreaded group where havocs were and still are wrecked on the citizens.
In their initial modus operandi, while men were disproportionately been killed, women and girls were overwhelming targets for abductions, being, in some cases, converted or forced into marriages.
Since its emergence in 2002, Boko Haram has paid particular attention to women in rhetoric and actions, partly because of the intense debate surrounding their role in society in the North East.
Among other revivalist Islamic movements, the sect called for tighter restrictions on them in some areas of life but also promoted their access to Islamic education and offered financial empowerment. With patriarchy, poverty, corruption, early marriage and illiteracy long thwarting their life chances, some women, however, saw an opportunity in Boko Haram to advance their freedoms or reduce their hardship, whether forced or not.
Many valued the religious and moral anchoring. The seizure of more than 200 schoolgirls near Chibok in 2014 was a much publicised spike in a wider trend. The group took Christian and later Muslim females to hurt communities that opposed it, as a politically symbolic imposition of its will and as assets. By awarding “wives” to fighters, it attracted male recruits and incentivized combatants. Because women were not considered a threat, female followers and forced conscripts could initially circulate in government-controlled areas more easily, as spies, messengers, recruiters and smugglers. For the same reason, from mid- 2014, Boko Haram turned to female suicide bombers. Increasingly pressed for manpower, it also trained women to fight.
However, perhaps the biggest effects of Boko Haram insurgency can be viewed on how it stifled social and economic development in the state and almost turned Borno into a theatre of bloodbath with recurring bombing of soft targets and abduction of women and girls, which crippled development in the area.
Since the emergence of the present republic in 1999 where late Mala Kachala emerged as the Borno State governor that year, Borno has seen relative peace but the regime of Ali Modu Sheriff from 2003 to 2011 witnessed the activities of the sect even as the then governor was accused of masterminding the coming of the sect after he was also accused of allegedly reneging in the content of the agreement signed with the sect members towards enthroning Sharia Law in the state, an allegation Alhaji Sheriff had denied, saying the agreement to establish Sharia Law in Borno was signed by his predecessor.
However, the sect continued in their acts of terrorism and even upped the ante after Mohammed Yusuf, the founding leader, was killed while in police custody. According to information on a UN Development Programme report, the sect had killed More than 190,000 people between 2003 and 2013, with the majority of the casualties being murdered under the administration of former Governor Kashim Shettima and his predecessor, Ali Modu Sheriff. While both governors did so much to contain the insurgent group, the deaths through abductions, suicide bombings and direct confrontations via ambushes were so much more than even reported, World Report noted.
According to Statista.com, a global statistical platform, Borno State, as the epicenter of the insurgents, comes first in the number of deaths arising from Boko Haram attacks.
Basing their assessments on the seven states of Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Kaduna, Benue, Adamawa and Plateau over a period between 2011 and 2023, they noted that 38,255 deaths arising from Boko Haram attacks were recorded in Borno, followed by Zamfara and Kaduna with 6903 and 6195 deaths in the second and third spots respectively. Within that same period till now, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum is the governor.
Despite the seeming heightened attacks by the insurgents under Governor Zulum, a private visit to Maiduguri weeks ago by our correspondent showed that Borno State is far from the public perception of a state replete with relatively ungoverned spaces where modern development is almost non-existent as a result of unabated attacks by the insurgents.
While speaking to our correspondent, Alhaji Mustapha Magaji, a resident of Damboa Road in Maiduguri, admitted the insecurity in a couple of local government areas of the state but said such hasn’t stopped the governor.
“You know Boko Haram started in Borno and it is right to say it is here mainly,” he said.
“In some local government areas, Boko Haram is still a big challenge although they no longer occupy like before, but in Borno today, we have a governor who has looked beyond the insecurity; in fact he is taking insecurity as a motivation.
“He is not the military that should be blamed for not stopping insecurity but I heard he has been supporting them to fight those people. If you go round the state, you will see a lot of housing estates,” he told our correspondent.
Our correspondent gathered that the governor has been hugely supporting the military. It was gathered that he has supported the post-insurgency operations with 94 brand new Hilux, 62 Toyota Land Cruiser (Samsara) patrol vehicles, assorted security gadgets, equipment and logistics; procured 300 new motorcycles; repaired/ upgraded 49 vehicles; and built a new office complex with support facilities for the Borno State Security Trust Fund to support security architecture and operations, all in a bid to ensure security of lives and property.
In his quest to ensure that the military upped their game in the fight against the terror group, he, at a point, incurred the anger of the presidency and the military high command.
For example, in 2020, at a point in the height of the insurgent attacks, Zulum drew several battle lines with the military who he reportedly accused of abandoning the natives in the evening to give room for attacks. For instance, speaking when he visited Auno, a town 20 kilometres from Maiduguri, in 2020 where 30 people were killed by the sect, the governor alleged that soldiers meant to secure the community deserted the people around 5pm on a daily basis.
Addressing Sunday Igbinomwanhia, the then garrison commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, at the scene of the incident on Monday, Zulum expressed concern that the army has not established a military base in Auno.
“We have to be brutal in telling the truth; I am being pushed to the wall, to tell the truth,” he was quoted to have said by The Cable.
His constant charges towards the military and telling them of local government areas still under the control of the sect drew bad blood from the army whose Commander in Chief then, Muhammadu Buhari, had falsely alleged that no local government area in Borno is under the control of Boko Haram.
“If you ask anybody from the Northeast, there were several local governments that were in the hands of Boko Haram or ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province].
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“None of these local governments now are in their control,” humananglemedia. com quoted Buhari as saying then, even as the deadliest Boko Haram attacks in Borno State took place under the Buhari government in 2020 where four local government areas – Guzamala, Kukawa, Abadam and Marte – were totally inaccessible and largely uninhabitable due to the presence of the Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters then.
That was one of the many instances where the country’s leader claimed his administration had tackled insecurity in Nigeria.
While the governor was widely applauded for standing in the gap for the truth in his revelation of true situation of insurgency in Borno, he later carved in under pressure from the military and the presidency when he made a detour and said no council area in his state was under the control of the insurgency, a pronouncement that drew the anger of most Nigerians who had earlier showed unalloyed support to him. The statement also showed the extent of pressure from the Federal Government to align with their lies.
However, if the governor can say that now, it could be understood as there is a huge improvement in the fight against the insurgents.
Also, in his quest to ensure that residents of Borno State are provided dividends of democracy, the governor has endured several assassination attempts by the sect who saw in him a hindrance in their quest to enlarge their coasts in their nefarious activities.
For instance, his convoy was attacked by Boko Haram insurgents on 29 July 2020, on Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway. Five people were killed including three policemen.
On September 26, 2020, Zulum and his convoy were again attacked by Boko Haram near Lake Chad. At least 18 people were reportedly killed, including 14 police officers and soldiers and 4 civilians. The death toll was later updated to 30 as more bodies were found.
Three days later, on the 29, Zulum’s convoy reportedly noticed a donkey on the road and shot at it. After the donkey exploded, insurgents came out of hiding and fired at them. A number of insurgents were killed, whereas no one in the convoy was injured.
On November 22, 2020, a convoy belonging to Zulum was attacked while he was traveling to meet with government officials in Baga. Seven soldiers and two civilians were killed in this ambush, but the governor was unhurt.
All these hadn’t deterred the governor from his sight which is firmly fixed on his mandate. For example, the governor, according to residents of Borno, has achieved in virtually all the sectors of the economy.
On Works, Zulum has continued to thrive unhindered. But perhaps one remarkable achievement is the construction of Borno’s second flyover and an underpass pedestrian bridge, while the third flyover is nearing completion.
The construction of 32.77km of urban and rural roads, including dual carriageways, drainages and road networks, is underway, even as he procured tracked paver and bulldozer to facilitate direct labour works in the state and ensure judicious utilisation of scarce resources.
On Housing, the state government under Zulum has constructed two separate estates, comprising 500 units and 72- unit 3-bedroom flats with road networks delivered for civil servants and residents.
In August this year, he inaugurated the Nguro-Soye 500 Housing Estate. The Nguro- Soye resettlement houses have public facilities such as schools, a primary healthcare centre, water facilities and other basic needs.
Houses and about 1,000 shelters were constructed for over 1,100 households from about 10 communities displaced by the over one decade of insurgency.
The communities are Burari, Adamri, Zaramri and Mairamri of Soye town; Dambiya, Shaan I, Shaan II, Makintari, Bulbulin Ngaura and Diwa Ngaura of Jodri town.
Lending voice to the achievements of his principal against the odds of insecurity, Secretary to the state government, Malam Bukar Tijjai, said in the health sector, Zulum delivered 19 projects in 10 LGAs across all the three Senatorial Zones, including six new primary healthcare centres (PHCs), new General Hospital, 2 new Eye and Dental Hospitals, block of classrooms at a Nursing School, construction of two new Colleges of Nursing, the rehabilitation of 3 General Hospitals, and state-wide initiatives (solar systems in 22 PHCs and a General Hospital, supply of medical equipment, essential drugs, and consumables, etc). Works and Housing got 20 projects across 6 LGAs, transforming urban and rural landscapes.
He also said there are about 36 new mega and regular senior/junior secondary and primary schools, high Islamic college and integrated tsangaya schools, including admin blocks, teachers’ quarters, laboratories, sporting facilities, solar systems, new ICT laboratories and 88 science laboratories in 22 schools, 58 vehicles for monitoring and evaluation of schools, 6,529 furniture sets for schools and education offices, among others, which has been accomplished in the state hitherto known for bomb detonations and other vices.
According to Alhaji Magaji, who spoke to our correspondent, a textile dealer, a trade that has taken him to virtually all parts of Borno, Boko Haram terrorists target schools to ensure that western education is suppressed in the state. But he said the destructions meted on education facilities merely ginger the governor based on his findings across the state.
According to statistics obtained by our correspondent, the destruction of education facilities in the North East region where Borno State is the worst hit is running into billions of US dollars.
But the residents of Borno State stated that the present administration in the state had shown rare determination, as it had since picked up the pieces and does not want the future generation to swim in the sea of illiteracy, hence the priority attention to the education sector.
To lift off the burden of school fees payments off the shoulders of parents and guardians, the state government has continued to pay scholarship both for students studying within and outside Nigeria. Orphans of Counter Terrorism Volunteers were not left out as 300 of them got more than N50 million in scholarship for 2024. This is apart from educational infrastructural upgrade and training, as well as retraining of teachers for deployment into rural areas.
The President of the National Union of Borno State Students also testified to the state government’s performance against all odds in transforming the education sector.
“We have an amazing governor in Professor Zulum; he has continued to accord education the desired attention. Our governor has expended almost two billion on scholarship alone this year, this is aside from the massive infrastructural development in the education sector and training and retraining of teachers,” Kyari said.
As scars of the past destruction by Boko haram terrorists on the education sector is gradually giving way, the governor noted;
”We will continue to do more to give quality education to our citizens.” Governor Zulum said at a recent event.
On the flip side, Borno communities are still without enough security to ensure quality teaching and learning, according to our findings, and this is where the residents are calling on the governor to ensure that what remained of facilities at the rural areas are safeguarded.
They admitted the efforts of the state government in even relocating the IDPs but such efforts would be futile if something is not done to ensure adequate security at the rural areas.
Thus, commentators have urged the governor to not only end in sending teachers to rural areas but ensure their security. While they admitted that there is renaissance in the state’s education sector, they picked holes in the governor’s drive for not ensuring commensurate security in schools given that educational facilities have remained the soft target of the insurgents.
Our correspondent gathered that some relatively well-to-do residents of the rural areas in the state have dumped the schools there for their wards, preferring to relocate them to the urban centers like Maiduguri where school abductions are rarely heard and this is one area they feel the governor must give priority to in his quest to ensure all-round development of the state.
