Boko Haram kept them from school; now they are students

Mohammed’s* dream of studying at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State in north-east Nigeria was very nearly thwarted 11 years ago when insurgents attacked his home town of Bama, the second-largest town in Borno State, kidnapping many residents, including him.

The terrorists also killed many people. Some of them were his relatives. “My father was not around. My mother was doing chores in the house when we started hearing gunshots. It was sometime in 2013. Before we could run, the terrorists had entered the house. They captured us and took us to their den, in the bush,” he recalls.

Upon reaching the terrorists’ camp, Mohammed, then 17 years old, met many victims – men, women and children – girls and boys, like him.

“The women were turned into cooks, the men were radicalised and asked to become fighters. Those who refused were killed in our presence. Many girls were forcefully married to the sect’s commanders. They berated us heavily for attending school. They said Western education would damage and enslave us. They asked us to recite the Quran almost every day. They said that, when they finished purging the north and Nigeria as a whole from ‘sin’, everyone would live by Quranic injunctions.

“I was in secondary school at the time and I knew they were talking rubbish. I could not be brainwashed. I already knew that I wanted to become an educated person, so I didn’t let their propaganda get to me. I can’t count how many times they beat and tortured us. They trained us boys to carry guns with the hope of becoming fighters someday,” Mohammed tells University World News.

Thank God, the day of his becoming a jihadist fighter never came, Mohammed, now 28, says.

In March 2015, the Nigerian military launched an offensive on the terrorists, dislodged them and reclaimed control of Bama. Many captives, including Mohammed, were freed and, following this event, internally displaced person camps were set up for those who had been displaced and those fleeing the jihadist attacks in smaller villages.

Admission to university

Thanks to the military intervention in Bama, Mohammed says he continued his life after spending about two years in Boko Haram captivity. In 2021, his dream of being educated got a boost when he was offered admission to study biochemistry at the University of Maiduguri.

“It was one of the happiest moments of my life. I cried a little that day, especially when I realised how the course of my life could have changed if Boko Haram had killed me like they did many people or if I had become their fighter. My dream would have been lost,” says Mohammed, who is now a second-year student at the institution.

He still has flashbacks of his capture and torture by Boko Haram.

“I try not to allow the past to affect me, but sometimes I can’t totally forget it. And the fact that there have been offshoots of Boko Haram terrorising the north after everyone thought there would have been peace by now makes me sad. Today, students like me are being kidnapped and killed by, not just Boko Haram, but also bandits.

“I hope there will be light at the end of the tunnel soon because this insecurity situation has persisted for too long. The lives and future of many children and youths here have been truncated by insurgency. I wake up every day feeling grateful because of the gifts of life and education,” Mohammed says.

Education as a war casualty

A thriving agricultural hub, Nigeria’s northern region was reputed to be peaceful and calm until about 2009 when Islamic jihadists Boko Haram started an insurgency to impose its radical views of Islam.

Also active in Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Mali, the sect – whose name in Hausa, the dominant language in the north, means that Western education is haram (forbidden) – has upended the lives of millions of people and waged a relentless war against secular education, destroying schools and killing and abducting students and teachers.

The group’s first notable attack on education was in April 2014 when it kidnapped 276 mostly Christian female students from the Government Girls Secondary School at Chibok, Borno State. Some of the girls were forcefully converted to Islam, some were killed, and some married to terrorists.

In April 2024, 10 years after the kidnapping that shook the world, international human rights organisation Amnesty International said 87 of the girls were still in captivity.

Last year, the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, stated that, since 2009, the Boko Haram insurgency in north-east Nigeria has led to thousands of deaths and the displacement of about 4.5 million people, particularly in Borno State, the epicentre of the insurgency.

Successive presidents, including Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army major general, pledged to tackle the insurgency, particularly the challenge to education. However, the group continues to wreak havoc. To make matters worse, several splinters have emerged from the group – some of them are known locally as bandits – and kidnap people, including students, for ransom.

Determined to succeed

Mohammed is one of the many former Boko Haram captives who have emerged from their trauma and have continued with their educational goals.

In August 2014, 25-year-old Idris* was captured among others in his hometown of Gwoza, a border town about 135km from the capital city of Maiduguri. He tried to escape once but was caught, an episode that earned him severe punishment.

Four months later, he and four others made another attempt to escape and were lucky. He left Gwoza afterwards for Damaturu, the capital city of neighbouring Yobe State, to stay with an uncle.

Today, Idris is a third-year biology student at Yobe State University, hoping to become a scientist in the future. “The things we saw and were forced to do were bad and I don’t wish anyone to experience it. There are occasional flashbacks and tears. Unfortunately, the security crisis in the north persists and no one would have imagined we would still be talking about Boko Haram in 2024,” he tells University World News.

Aisha* was 14 years old when she was abducted by the terrorists in Bama in 2013. She says she suffered several abuses from the insurgents while in their camp at Sambisa Forest. Her work at the camp entailed cleaning and fetching water and firewood with other girls. She suffered both physical and psychological abuse for almost a year, until help came from the military.

The 25-year-old is now a student of medical laboratory science at the University of Maiduguri and hopes to engage in humanitarian work after her education. “It was a traumatic experience, but I think I have been able to overcome it to some extent. I would like to be a force for change in my state and inspire girls who have been let down due to the crisis in our region,” Aisha says.

Overcoming trauma

Mental health experts note that the survivors of Boko Haram attacks can suffer from several forms of psychosocial distress as a result of their captivity in the past. Hence, they recommend that psychosocial programmes aimed at protecting and promoting the psychosocial well-being of the survivors be implemented.

Taiwo Obindo, professor of psychiatry at the University of Jos, Plateau State, and president of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, tells University World News that help should be given to students still battling with trauma so they can overcome their pain and cope with their studies.

“Ideally, any Boko Haram survivor should be given psychotherapeutic interventions and be screened for any psychological problems that may have occurred as a result of their captivity. The most common symptoms among them are acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Some are at risk of developing mental illness because of the significant life events.

“They may be triggered when there are cues that remind them of being kidnapped and tortured by the terrorists. Some of them may find it difficult to talk to people or even use public transport because of the fear of being kidnapped. These events may affect their focus in school.

“I would suggest that the students still battling with trauma should consult a mental health practitioner who will examine them and recommend some solutions. They can visit the health centre or sick bay on their campus and talk to the medical doctor, who can then refer them to the nearest mental health facility that can be of help,” says Obindo.

Any hope out of the security crisis?

Over the years, there have been numerous calls by the citizens as well as by local and foreign organisations on the Nigerian government to end the security crisis in northern Nigeria. However, despite the government’s promises, it seems the crisis has no end in sight.

Professor Adoyi Onoja, a security researcher at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, in north-central Nigeria, has studied the crisis for years and believes insecurity in Nigeria may not be solved as long as it benefits those in power.

“We will never solve it and it’s not because I’m pessimistic or that I hate Nigeria. Take a look, particularly under civil rule in the past 25 years. I have studied the security crisis in the country for years, and my conclusion is that insecurity is a means by corrupt politicians – in cahoots with top security chiefs – to keep making money for themselves.

“Look at defence spending over the years; it has always topped Nigeria’s budget. Apart from federal defence budgets, each of the 36 state governors also gets a security vote every year, which is billions of naira and doesn’t get accounted for. How would they continue to justify this spending if the insecurity problem were solved? The interest entrenched in insecurity has come to stay. So please, don’t burden yourself with this problem. No solution is going to come from the political and military elites.

“Former president Goodluck Jonathan realised this when he said there were Boko Haram sponsors in the government. If Nigeria wanted to solve the security problem, it would have solved it a long time ago,” Onoja tells University World News.

He believes that, unless something revolutionary “like the Arab Spring, happens”, security is a closed case in Nigeria. “Unfortunately, the potential drivers of any revolution – the masses – have been so impoverished that the only thing they will keep thinking about is how to put food on their tables.”

American think tank the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)’s report in July 2024 corroborates Onoja’s perceptions.

In the report, The Forever Counterinsurgency, CFR states that Nigeria’s counterinsurgency is hampered by the longstanding weakness of the state, corruption, and poor strategic planning.

“To worsen matters, Nigeria has one of the most corrupt security sectors in the world. A study by the Carnegie Endowment found that the defence sector is rife with types of corrupt activity that produce a one-way flow of cash to top officials. This partly explains why, in a country with the single largest defence budget in Sub-Saharan Africa, frontline forces routinely suffer dangerous equipment shortfalls … Corruption is also fuelled by the influx of foreign money into the defence sector,” says CFR.

* Names have been changed to protect identities.