*18 boarding schools in Niger remain shut
By Aideloje Ojo
When the heat of attacks by Boko Haram terrorists on education facilities in Niger State became too intensive, the state government ordered the ministry of education to quickly force the closure of all its 56 boarding schools. The first of such schools to be shut was the famous Government Science College, Kagara in Rafi local government. Following the deadly attack in February 2021, a student, Banjamin Doma, was killed and 27 others kidnapped. However, in tackling the terrorists from that axis, the military moved into Kagara town, occupied and converted the college to its operation base.
After three years there is no indication that the Army would evacuate the school premises for academic activities. This has triggered disaffection among concerned citizens and the state government. NEXTER investigation discovered that 18 boarding schools are still closed without any plan whatsoever to reopen them, even though it appears that relative peace has returned to the state.
Will students ever set foot on Government Science College Kagara again?
The invasion of the GSC Kagara by terrorists in February 2021, the killing of a student,Benjamin Doma, and adduction of 27 other students along with 15 staff/family members was confirmed by the then Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, now a Senator representing Niger North at the National Assembly. Addressing press conference on the matter, Bello had also directed the state commissioner of education to close all boarding schools with immediate effect, especially those located in Shiroro, Munya and Rafi local government areas known to have been infested by terrorists and banditry. The ex-governor also announced the presence of military in the area to curb the incessant terrorists’ incursion into Kagara communities. To many, it was a welcome development, but what they did not envisage was that the military woukd eventually occupy and convert the college to its permanent operational base in the state.
The government and the Army did not make this public. It was learnt that the abducted students and staff were released but their hope of returning to the college was dashed because it has become a military base. As they eagerly waited for the resumption of the college, the expectation has now become endless. The fears of the stakeholders of the college is that it may never reopen again, in the nearest future. Checks revealed that the GSC Kagara may not come back alive in the same premises which was once cherished by old students as a beloved Alma Mata.
There are indications that government is planning to relocate the college to Minna and situate it at the ground of the Maryam Babangida Girls Science School in Bosso. Apparently unaware of this reality, it was learnt that about a month ago, some members of the old students’ association of the college raised the alarm over the continued closure of the college for almost three years demanding for the reopening and resumption of academic activities at the college as against its continued occupation by the military. A member of the Old Students Association of the college who spoke on condition of anonymity called on the state governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, to quit the military from the school premises to allow for academic activities. “There are many other locations where the Army can occupy in Kagara and effectively carry out its operations instead of commandeering our college for which they were expected to provide security,”the source said.
It was learnt that at the time of the attack in 2021, the college had the full complement of enrolled students in SS1, SS2 and SS3. Analysts believe that the government then deliberately ceded the college to the military because of the adverse exposure of the dilapidated infrastructures which got the attention of the world. So instead of fixing the infrastructure, government shied away and deprived over 800 students from returning to school after the attack, some critics say.
However, there are several questions in the public domain about the fate of the college concerning what happened to the students who were in session before the attack. Also of great concern to citizens and parents is the issue of continued closure of many other boarding schools in the state.
Commissioner Speaks
In search of cogent answers, the NEXTER team directed some of the questions to the state commissioner of Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Hadiza Asebe Mohammad, in an interview and the following was her response:
NEXTER: How many boarding schools are there in Niger State and how many are functioning now?
Commissioner: We presently have 56 boarding schools including the IQE (what is IQE?)which we added to our conventional boarding schools. We have 43 that are opened and functioning. The conventional boarding schools are 35 and the IQE are 8 boarding schools. We are feeding them adequately and sufficiently
NEXTER: Do you have areas of challenge especially those in the banditry/terrorists infested areas?
Commissioner: Yes, there are about 18 schools that are yet to be opened. But what we did in recent time, about three weeks ago, is to come up with an idea on how to reopen the closed schools. When we came on board, we had police reports telling us to reopen or not to open some of our closed-down schools. However, as a ministry, we felt it’s not good enough to just work with police report without consulting with relevant stakeholders. So the idea now is to come up with a committee, named tagged ‘Community-Based Committee on Safe Schools and Education Reforms’ to be stepped in the 25 local governments of the state. This committee will be headed by the chairmenvof the local governments. The commissioner of that local government is a member as well as the PTA chairmen of the respective schools. The DPO of that local government is also member, including a representative of the Emirate Councils.
Religious leaders are equally members, et cetera. And now we said, each local government should take ownership of their schools. They should be able to meet quarterly to address issues of the schools within their local government. We will only respect and act on reports from that committee advising us to either open or not to open a closed school. This is because we believe that the entire stakeholders within that system must have sat and looked into the safety of the school before asking us to either open or not. So, presently, that is what is in the pipeline to address the issue of the closed-down schools.
How many students were in the boarding schools that are not functioning?
The boarding schools, if you look at the environment, differ in population. Like, I will tell you, Government College Bida has a population of 1,000 plus students, while Maryam Babangida Science School here in Minna has 600 plus. There is a boarding school within this town that has 35 students as boarders. So, it depends on the accommodation available.
We are talking of the 18 secondary schools that are closed in these bandits ravaged areas..?
I think if I may respond to the original question, you see, these boarding schools have been closed for the past one year or more. So already you can say this is not because there are no students in there. Now, what we did then when they closed those schools, we moved them to other boarding schools. Now, the question you may likely ask is how many boarding students do we have at present. I believe I should give you the answer to the total number of boarding schools we are feeding, about 9,226 people across the state. But as for those boarding schools closed, all the students were moved to other boarding schools. So, they are already in schools. You know, like Izom school, it’s a big school. The students have been deboarded. Some of them have been deboarded. Those that are having boarding schools in their local governments relevant to that school are taken to those boarding schools.
Just like Science College Kagara, it has been closed down for more than two years now, or three years. The boarding school students then, we moved them to Minna here. Yes, some of them are in Minna, but the students have already graduated, because this happened more than three years ago.
At that time, they were in SS1, SS2, SS3. So they have graduated. We no longer have students that come from that school. But if we want to reopen the school like the FGGC Kontagora now that they said we should open as a day school, we will just now give admission to JS1, JS2 and JS3 so that they can continue as day students in that school. So in the next two years you will see GCC Kontagora in SS class. Also, other schools that we are thinking to open. Like GCC Kontagora is a conventional school, it has Jss1 to SS3 which is a Unity school. But all our boarding schools starts from SS1, we only have FGCC Kontagora, Government College Bida and Arabic School that start from JSS 1. So if we are reopening the school, we will start from JSS1 not from SS class.
Is there hope for the reopening of GSC Kagara and Izom?
Izom is operational as day students not boarding but as for Kagara you can see that the school has been taken over by the Army. The soldiers are there, so the only thing we are thinking of doing now is that stakeholders shoukd come out with the idea to start operating from a primary school premises. But the question here is that science college is supposed to start from senior secondary class. So we are looking at the conditions on how it is going to be possible to start the science school at primary school with the name of the school, Government Science College Kagara to relocate there.
I think there is a rider to this. Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago said that since we still have issues with Kagara, we should look at Maryam Babangida Girls Science College so that part of its land would be taken and structures should be built there to relocate the science college there instead of allowing the school to completely die down. so that is the next option His Excellency has given us. Therefore, with the interventions that are coming now, allocation is going to be given to develop the space that is going to be carved out of Maryam Babangida Girls Science College because it has a very larg land which is currently used for farming. Kagara will now be given a push there and we will give admission that are meant for Kagara local government into that school.
How safe are the schools in Niger State?
We have this programme called Adolescent Girl Initiative and Learning Empowerment (AGILE). There are several reforms from that project. It’s a World Bank international intervention project in the state. It’s not free money, it’s a loan that the state has been listed to benefit from. It is important to inform you that AGILE has allocated the sum of $80m fund to Niger state and that Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has released N150m as counterpart fund. These are funds from AGILE that is supposed to be for building of 27 junior secondary schools and 27 senior secondary schools. But His Excellency has decided to use part of the fund to construct perimeter fences in schools to provide security to the students.
it is also important to inform you that from the loan provided, AGILE is supporting all the senior and junior secondary schools that are 534 in Niger state. We are renovating the 534 senior and junior secondary schools using Agile fund in Niger State.
However, there are matters arising from Dr. Hadiza Asebe Mohammad response especially concerning the idea of starting the college in a primary school premises and that of relocating the GSC Kagara to Minna to neighbour with Maryam Babangida Girls Science College. However, concerned stakeholders are of the view that the government should build a deferent military base for the Army to enable them vacate the college and renovate the school with modern infrastructures to resuscitate the college from the deadly blow by the terrorists three years ago. Experts believe that the government should be able to allocate money from the AGILE funds to reconstruct the Government Science College Kagara on its permanent site in Kagara town considering the fact that the AGILE funds has the mandate for the construction of 27 senior secondary schools in the state. Therefore, pundits advised that GSC Kagara should top the list of new beneficiary schools for the project.
GSC Kagara alumni wants military to vacate school premises
As public attention focuses on the possible extermination of GSC, Kagara, its alumni has also become agitated over its continued occupation by the military. In an apparent bid to voice out their displeasure over the situation, the alumni of the 84 set of the school met in July this year to reenact 40 years memories of their days at the boarding school. It was gathered that the former Senator representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, led his classmates to the event. However, the gathering made up of eminent Nigerians was devoid of the merriment that would have pervaded such event. The mood was more of the deep reflections of a dying school neglected by government and taken over by the military. The old students spoke in unison and resounded their disapproval of military occupation of the erstwhile prestigious Alma mater. Senator Shehu Sani did not mice worlds in knocking at the military and the Niger State government for taking the lead in sending the college to oblivion.
Demanding for the reopening of the college, Sani said: “Today our alma mater is in ruins. After the attack in 2021, the military has occupied the school to fight terrorists in the area. it is our desire for the school to return to academic session. I am going to talk with my friend the governor of Niger state to consider the reopening of the college.”
