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By Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
New mega schools, massive rebuilding of schools destroyed by insurgents, establishment of skill acquisition centres for thousands of unskilled youths displaced from their sources of income and incentives to teachers working in volatile areas are the template of Governor Babagana Zulum for restoring the future of Borno, the North East state ravaged by over a decade of insurgency.
“There is a nexus between education, development and insecurity,” Zulum has repeatedly maintained. This explains why the insurgents deliberately target schools and educational institutions in the state since 2019.
The bigger picture
The United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF) office in Nigeria, in one of its reports on the violence in the North East, described the education sector as the worst hit by the 13 years of insurgency. The global body revealed that almost 1,400 schools in Borno State have been destroyed by the violence caused by Boko Haram as at 2017.
This means that about 57 per cent of the schools were destroyed in a state already grappling with poor school infrastructure and low enrollment of school-age children. A total of 2,246 classrooms were affected in 512 attacks by Boko Haram.
Aside from this disturbing situation, more that 2,295 teachers were killed and an estimated 19,000 schoolchildren displaced from their schools, with many of the schools unable to open due to the extensive damage caused by Boko Haram attacks. This meant that many of the local governments in the state were without schools, primary and secondary, for nearly a decade.
Massive rebuilding of schools
Zulum, an engineer and professor of irrigation engineering, focuses more on technical education, re-establishing technical and science-based schools across the state. From the southern part of Borno State to the central and northern parts, Zulum took bold steps in re-establishing destroyed schools, returned displaced schoolchildren from the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps to their redesigned, rebuilt or, in some cases, new schools.
Schools finally back
Parents, guardians and children in Wuyo, a serene community in Bayo Local Government Area in the southern part of Borno, now have a Government Technical Secondary School. A new mega school was also built and equipped with modern educational facilities and teaching aids at Uba, also in the southern part of the state.
Rehabilitation of Government Day Secondary School, Bama, in the central part of Borno was also achieved.
Zulum similarly established, completed and inaugurated the Government Technical College, Mbalala, Chibok LGA.
Other interventions
Other interventions to boost education in the state include building a state-of-the-art auditorium for the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) by Zulum’s administration. The restructured and rebuilt Borno State Library Complex in Maiduguri, capital of the state, has been completed and opened to provide serene study environment for students and researchers in the state capital.
The Army Primary and Junior Secondary School at the Maimalari Cantonment of the Nigerian Army, 7 Division, Maiduguri, were also rebuilt by the Borno State government.
Zulum delivers houses for teachers in Borno
•Pomp, euphoria among families as President Buhari commissions teachers’ quarters
It was a season of joy for teachers and their families in Borno as an imposing and aesthetically appeasing quarters built for teachers by the Zulum’s administration, was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The quarters, which is one of the over 600 capital projects delivered by Gov Babagana Zulum, is situated at the sprawling Bulumkutu area along airport road in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
The teachers’ quarters comprise 24 units of well-furnished two-bedroom flats apartments in six blocks of storey-buildings.
The quarter is well fenced with the surrounding fully covered with interlocking tiles and beautiful landscape to provide security and serenity for the occupants.
Like other buildings and accommodation provided by the Zulum administration in the premises of several other schools across the state, the teachers’ quarters is to increase access tohousing for all teachers, Gov Zulum said at the Commissioning of the facility by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday 19th August, 2022.
Many teachers said the standard of the facility was the first provided by government to teachers in the state.
