Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Obiageli Mazi, the primary school teacher rewarded with promotion and cash by the Governor of Borno State, Prof Babagana Zulum, last month at a public school in Maiduguri, is a patience and dedicated teacher. The Abia State-born woman was unmoved by the scores of odds including insecurity and poverty around her as she followed her passion, teaching, with determination.
For 31 years, Obiageli has been resuming at work at the Shehu Sanda Kyarimi II Primary School, Maiduguri, as early as 6:30 am, often the first teacher to arrive. Her years of dedication paid off on Friday, February 7, 2020, during an assessment visit by the governor to the school.
“You deserve to be rewarded for your dedication. Madam, you’re dedicated and this is good,” Zulum had declared. But Obiageli’s reported dedication was not without huge challenge including threats to her life. She would have been dead five years ago safe for what she described as divine intervention. The 53-year-old woman told her story in a heart-rending manner during an encounter with The Education Report in her school.
My close shave with Boko Haram
“There was a day I was coming to school early in the morning. I got to Gambrou Market around the Customs area and violence started. The shooting was so much. These people (Boko Haram) were shooting and the fire was so much. I didn’t know what to do. I just stopped and stood there praying and bullets just passed me by.”
If that experience was traumatising, her second escapade was nonetheless frightening. Her school is tucked amid sprawling community nearly a kilometer to the Nigeria Customs House, Maiduguri. The area is known for violent attacks by Boko Haram and almost overrun by the insurgents.
Often times in 2014 and 2015, the insurgents would invade schools in the area and opened fire on pupils/students and teachers in the classrooms. Obiageli was trapped in one of such terror attacks by Boko Haram in her school:
“They came firing everywhere. We were running. There was one of my colleagues, Madam Caroline Obi, she was teaching Primary 6 when Boko Haram came. This woman was alone, everybody ran for their life. There was a woman operating a restaurant near the school, Madam Obi managed to hide there. I ran there to help her and as God would have it, the people (Boko Haram) didn’t see her. They left through the school back door.”
Obiageli said she never gave up her passion despite the fearful experiences and pressure from relations to flee Borno State: “I still continue to go to school early. It was just God. I was always coming to school early and God was helping me.”
The driving force
She said her upbringing and strong Christian faith contributed to her discipline and life of dedication: “I am from a family that fears God. I was very little when my parents died. It was my grandmother in 1979 that brought me up and continued to nurture me. If I wanted to move, the woman would call me, asked me to sit down for advice.” That became her driving force.
How I became a teacher in Borno
“I just finished at Women Teachers’ College (WTC) in Maiduguri in 1986. I didn’t clear my papers in time and I sat for my Mathematics five times until 1986 when I made it. After that, I was staying with a relation and on February 1, 1989, I secured the teaching job.
“I was serving my brother’s wife around Flour Mills. Then one man came, he was an engineer working at the mills too. He asked me what I was doing in Borno and he said I should get a job in the state since I had stayed here long. He said I have already become an indigene. He asked me to apply and I did. That was all.”
She was employed in February 1988 and taught Primary One pupils. She decided on her own to take the primary one class because of her belief that strong education can only be built at the elementary:
“I have been taking the Primary One children and teaching them. I told God that since you have given me this job and I promised I would not fail God. That I will be sincere no matter the condition I go through either in sickness, serious difficulty or lack of money. I always believe that one day God will reward me.”
She narrated how she was “discovered” by the governor: “It was on Friday, I got to the school at about 6.28 am. As I was about to write my name on the attendance register, I saw some vehicles coming into the school compound.
“A man walked up to me and asked me; what are you doing here and I said I came to work. I am a teacher. The man was surprised and he said, so early? He said he would let the governor know about it. Then later, the people in the vehicles came down.
“I think they came to inspect the school. You know our school has been occupied by IDPs for some years before they were relocated and it is like the state government wants to renovate it.
“After the inspection, the governor beckoned at me where I was standing. I quickly ran there. He said ‘no, don’t run, take it easy, I will wait for you.’ He asked me, ‘what are you doing here this hour?’ I said, ‘I am a teacher and this is the time I always resume.’ He then asked again how long have I been working. I told him for 31 years.
“He asked again what is my qualification and I told him I am an NCE holder. He asked the year and I told him 2012. He said, ‘you must be rewarded,’ and he gave me some money. He also said I would be promoted to the position of Assistant Headmistress. I am so happy.”
She advised younger persons to be patient: “It takes a lot of sacrifices, a lot of patience for you to get up.” She said her headmistress in the school severally encouraged her to keep up her diligence and dedication. “She would say, one day, God will remember you and you will be rewarded. I am happy this has come through.”
Her colleagues described her as patience and committed staff. Mohammed Aliyu, Headmaster, Gamboru III Primary School, said: “Madam does her work with all diligence whether the weather is cold or hot, she is always in the school early. She is always the first to come.”
Obiageli’s former pupil and now her colleague in the same school, Maryam Hassan, said her former teacher was passionate about her job: “She taught me in this school in 1989. She is always the first to report to school since then.”