By Ikechukwu Amaechi
It was an astonishing scene. Ordinarily, one would expect a soldier in the theatre of war such as the North East to be in the jungle hunting down members of Boko Haram who have levied war against the Nigerian state since 2009.
But that was not the case on this hot Wednesday afternoon November 9, in the rustic town of Pulka, in Gworza Council in Borno State.
Standing in front of a motley crowd of primary school pupils, with his fully loaded gun, slung on his shoulder, Corporal Adam Ibrahim, was doing the unexpected.
He was teaching pupils of Pulka Nursery and Primary School – a school run by the Alpha Company of the 121 Battalion, Nigerian Army – English and Hausa languages, two subjects in which he claims to have “core competence.”
Opened on January 7, 2016, Pulka Nursery and Primary School is not much of what it claims to be – a school – literally, for it has no such paraphernalia. There are no desks and tables, not to talk of classrooms.
Located in an open field with well over 200 pupils in different classes, they sat on the bare floor or stones under trees in the scorching sun.
The pupils wore all manner of dresses, some mere rags, but they all seemed keen to acquire education, a repudiation of the core philosophy of their tormentors-in-chief, Boko Haram, which insists that acquiring Western education is a taboo.
There was nothing normal in the school environment. Rather than the usual instruction materials and kiddies toys usually on display in such schools elsewhere, there were guns.
While Ibrahim carried his own gun, his colleagues from the Alpha Company, who also taught the pupils, had their guns leaned on tree trunks or wherever they could easily lay their hands on them when the need arises.
School has helped a lot, says Aisha, 11
Ibrahim, who hails from Bauchi State and joined the army in 2009, explains why.
“The guns can never be really far from us no matter what we do because this is still a war zone. In the night, we do sentry work and in the morning, we teach the pupils here.
“And if in the course of teaching, there is a security threat, we abandon the teaching and deal with the terrorists. That is our life as soldiers,” he explained.
The reason why the soldiers still consider Pulka a war theatre despite the fact that it was liberated from the terrorists in 2015 is simple.
It is only about two hours by road from the dreaded Sambisa forest, the seemingly impregnable stronghold of Boko Haram, and about 30 minutes’ drive from Gworza, another frontline community in the war.
But Pulka Nursery and Primary School has become a metaphor not only for the uneasy calm that pervades the entire North East, most especially the devastated Borno communities, but also the incredible determination of the people to defy terrorists and make the most of a really bad situation.
The school epitomises the dogged resolve of the embattled indigenes to claw back whatever remains of their lives and forge ahead. The enthusiasm of the pupils to learn in the face of overwhelming odds was inspiring.
But most importantly the trip to Pulka amplified the grossly understated role soldiers are playing in not only defeating the terrorists in the war front but putting a balm on the scars of war by giving the people back a semblance of normal life.
Aisha Musa, 11, the head girl of the primary school – who also teaches primary four pupils English language when she is not in class herself – told TheNiche the entire community has the soldiers to thank for everything.
“Without these soldiers, we wouldn’t have been here. When the terrorists captured and burnt down the community, we ran away to Maiduguri. We only came back this year.
“This school has helped a lot. We are determined to learn and acquire education and the soldiers are helping us a lot,” said Aisha, a primary six pupil, who could only speak a smattering of English.
And as proof of the tremendous progress that has been made since 2015, 219 pupils are poised to write the common entrance examination to gain admission into secondary schools.
Seminar on Boko Haram insurgency
A one-day seminar on Boko Haram insurgency organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja, with the theme, “Assessing the threats of Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria”, was held in Abuja on Monday, November 7.
In attendance was the cream of the security forces, including the army, navy, air force, police, customs, immigration, prison services, and civil defence corps.
The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), led by its President, Funke Egbemode, and a team from the Atlantic Council African Centre, Washington DC, led by its Director General, Peter Pham, were also in attendance.
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, was the special guest of Honour.
The two lectures delivered by Professor Mohammed Kyari, Vice Chancellor Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, and Major General Leo Irabor, Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, looked at various aspects of the Boko Haram insurgency.
While Kyari assessed the impact of the insurrection, Irabor focused on the role of the army in combating it.
The papers discussed by Dr. Freedom Onuoha of the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Dr. Pham on the one hand and Brigadiers-General Ben Ahanotu and Msheila on the other generated interesting debate.
It was obvious that the military is not particularly happy with the impression created in certain quarters, particularly by the international human rights groups like Amnesty International, that in waging the war against insurgency, it is wittingly trampling on human rights.
While there may have been cases of abuse, the military insists that, like in any other war situation, such cases are exceptions rather than the norm.
Irabor enumerated numerous efforts in winning the hearts and minds of the locals and what the soldiers are enduring in order to degrade Boko Haram.
The fact was underscored by the burial later that day at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja of the highly decorated Lt. Col Mohammed Abu Ali, who was killed in an ambush in Borno State.
Acting General Officer Commanding 7 Division Nigerian Army, Brigadier General VU Ezegwu, on August 10, 2016 inaugurated a General Court Martial (GCM) in Maiduguri with Brigadier General Olusegun Adeniyi as president to dispense with all pending disciplinary cases that occurred in the Theatre of Operation Lafiya Dole, particularly those who could not be tried summarily.
A total 20 military personnel, including four officers (two majors and two captains) and 16 others comprising one staff sergeant, two sergeants, two corporals, three lance corporals, seven privates soldiers and a naval sea man underwent trial for different offences – including murder, loss of arms, defilement, assault occasioning bodily harm, and desertion.
Ezegwu said the directive came from Army Headquarters that a standing GCM be set up for Operation Lafiya Dole to try offences committed by personnel within the Theatre of Operation, necessitating his issuance of a Convening Order for the court on August 5, 2016.
It is on this alleged violation of human rights that the United States predicates its reluctance to sell arms to Nigeria insisting that the Leahy Act prevents it from selling arms to countries with human rights abuse records.
To tell its own side of the story, some editors and the delegation from the Atlantic Council African Centre were invited to visit Borno State.
The trip to Pulka
In Maiduguri, the team from Abuja was divided into two groups.
One group went to Pulka, a town in Gworza Council that was liberated from Boko Haram control.
The team, led by Major General Johnny Hamakim, Director General, Nigerian Army Resource Centre, included Col S.K. Usman, Col A.S. Ndalolo.
It also included the five-man delegation from Atlantic Council that included Dr. Pham, Julian Wyss, Assistant Director, Mary Carlin Yates, retired U.S. Ambassador, the husband, John Yates, also a retired U.S. ambassador, and retired U.S. Army General, Carter Ham, who once commanded African Command (AFRICOM).
The military helicopter took off at about 9.23am and landed at the base of 121 battalion at exactly 10.05am.
Enter Lt. Col. M.D. Abdulsalam
Lt. Col Muritala Danjuma Abdulsalam, the Commanding Officer of 121 Battalion, epitomises all that the military can be proud of.
Together with the late Abu-Ali, Abdulsalam was one of the young officers who was drafted by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to make the final push and liberate the areas held by Boko Haram when the 2015 elections were postponed for some weeks due to insecurity in the North East.
With Abu-Ali, Abdulsalam led the team that liberated Gworza and moved into Sambisa forest.
When Gworza was freed, the military high command pulled him back to Pulka to consolidate on the gains made and to ensure Boko Haram never regained any foothold in the area.
What Abdulsalam has done in the battlefield is remarkable. One of his soldiers described him as a “fighter”.
But what he has done outside the battlefield to win the hearts and minds of the people and make life more meaningful for them is even more remarkable.
With nothing to fall back on, soldiers of the 121 Battalion, inspired by their Commanding Officer, are gradually making Pulka, a town of almost 20,000 people, habitable again.
To provide portable water, the battalion dug borehole with two GP tanks where the villagers fetch water twice daily. They also resuscitated academic activities in the town with pupils taught exclusively by soldiers.
Presently, 219 pupils are poised to write the common entrance examination to gain admission into secondary school.
Abdulsalam also set up skills acquisition centres in July 2016, and like the primary school, the first set from the centres were taught exclusively by soldiers.
Halima Musa, 32, who lost her husband in the last attack in the town, is one of those acquiring skills at the centre located in an abandoned filling station.
So far, the first set of 250 students have acquired skills in soap making, cream, poultry farming, and tailoring.
Almost 500 pupils in the primary school were provided free meals cooked by soldiers, as well as school uniforms, sandals, and even exercise books.
Abdulsalam explains that about 2,000 new school uniforms are being sown by those who graduated from the skill acquisition centres.
“We won’t be here forever, our goal is to empower the locals so that even when we are gone, they would have acquired skills that will enable them live meaningfully.
“Our goal is to give hope to the less privileged and internally displaced persons. These people have gone through very traumatic experiences. We are working to integrate them back into the society and give them a better life.
“Now, with the skills they have acquired, they can work and earn a living no matter how small,” he told TheNiche, smiling.
With the arrival of various international organisations, the prospect of a peaceful, and perhaps even a prosperous, Pulka looks possible.
Provision of primary health had been a major challenge for the battalion.
But with the arrival of a 12-member team from the Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), who arrived on October 22, and included five medical doctors, the pressure, though still there, is easing off.
A team from UNICEF and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is also on the ground.
Abdulsalam has become a folk hero in Pulka. The trainees at the skill acquisition centre ululated and sang his praises immediately we stepped into the centre. The pupils at the primary school were not left out. His soldiers spoke highly of him.
Yet, he remained humble and unassuming, refusing to officially grant interviews unless to clarify issues from the speech he made earlier to the delegation.
With what is going on in Pulka, the war against Boko Haram is winnable, at least to the extent that the long suffering indigenes of those war ravaged towns and villages can lead a normal life again.
But to achieve that, Hamakim says a lot still needs to be done.
“Winning the war by soldiers is only about 20 per cent of the work. The remaining 80 per cent lies in the hands of the political class. A lot more needs to be done after the war.
“Right now, Pulka is secured and the military is well deployed. But the process of integration and making sure that the ideology that drives Boko Haram does not become attractive is a lot harder,” he explains.
At exactly 11.32am, we hopped back into the military chopper on our way back to Maiduguri. But not before having a sumptuous meal of chicken pepper soup prepared by officers and men of the 121 Battalion.
The Americans seemed to have enjoyed the meal even more, despite the pepper. We arrived at the Maiduguri International Airport, at 12.08pm, a city Usman describes as the “safest town to live in Nigeria now.”
According to him, there is no incidence of armed robbery in Maiduguri because of the level of security.
But traffic snarl is now a permanent feature in the city, something that was a misnomer only a few months ago.
