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Damaturu, a few weeks after

Some readers might view my action as an exaggeration of an event that ordinarily has not directly affected me, having hailed from far away Benue…

Some readers might view my action as an exaggeration of an event that ordinarily has not directly affected me, having hailed from far away Benue State. Their arguments would also draw inspiration from the fact that since 2010, Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people in Yobe and Borno states as the insurgents vent their anger on public schools and innocent civilians. They have also sent thousands to their early graves across the north where their deadly attacks took place.
However, being a father, such images would draw tears even from the hardest of hearts. The gunmen reportedly entered the college at 1 a.m. and opened fire on the students while they were asleep. By the time the dust settled, forty-two bodies were recovered while eighteen sustained various degrees of injuries.  Two of the victims later died at Damaturu Specialist Hospital where they were rushed for medical attention.
If such episode does not evoke our sympathy and move us to action even involuntarily, what else could?
I was more touched probably because I was in Damaturu, the state capital three weeks earlier and had witnessed the enthusiasm that greeted the reopening of the schools across the state by the commissioner of education, Alhaji Mohammed Alamin. The schools were abruptly shut down after insurgents killed 26 students and three teachers in two separate incidents. The attackers did not spare schools’ infrastructure including classrooms, dormitories and laboratories.
While pupils and students elsewhere across the country were in schools, those in some Yobe and Borno schools had to stay at home for fear of another attack in the on-going onslaught against western education by the insurgents.
Unofficial statistics had put the number of students who have relocated to schools outside the two states to over 10,000 since the July 2012. Those who were not so fortunate to seek knowledge elsewhere were eager for the schools to reopen as peace gradually returned.
There was a large turnout of students within the state capital the following Monday. Students who spoke to newsmen in the state capital could not hold their excitement over the development andso were their parents. They were eager to leverage on thetime lost due to the forced closure of schools.
According to commissioner Lamin, students in the state were few weeks behind their peers elsewhere as far as the syllabi are concerned. “Schools were down because of the insurgents’ attacks two weeks to the end of the term, and once we reopened, we made provision for extra lessons to enable us cover the syllabus before we move into a new one. The JSS3 classes are now sitting for their basic certificate examination which will qualify them for entry into SS1. And before they did that they had to revise the syllabus to cover areas supposedly missed. As for the SS3 students, they have completed their WAEC and NECO even before the schools were shut and as we speak, the results have even been released. The SS2 students are also sitting for their promotion examinations into SS3 and we will use the result of that examination to register them for WAEC and NECO against May/June 2014 insha Allah”, he had noted with optimism during the briefing.
He also disclosed that some rebuilding processes were going on in the affected schools to provide an environment conducive for both students and teachers. He said five schools were seriously affected by the insurgents’ activities. In these schools, virtually all the facilities were affected, including hostels in cases where the school is a boarding one and even staff quarters.
However, this optimism was shattered again few weeks after the schools come back to life following the incident at Gujba. The incident was followed by an onslaught on the state capital itself where many lives were reportedly lost after peace had gradually returned to it.
During my short stay, I noticed that Damaturu was a city in a hurry to forget its very challenging past. And it was apparent that everybody is conscious of the challenges on ground. And the state government eagerly leads this drive and a friend who works in one of the national dailies was ever busy inspecting on-going projects, a completed one or those which contracts would be given along with the governor’s press crew.
For those four days I spent in that ancient city, I can say it was no longer a city under a state of emergency. It was a state on a recovery mission and the military seemed to be aware of this and eased up the tension at the road blocks. Although their eagle eyes still looked out for the insurgents, but the stern look had relaxed as they smiled in welcome to travelers.
The ghosts have also since fled as the town bustled with life.Those who left the town to neighboring states in the wake of the many attacks on it have since returned. The banks operated far beyond the expected hours even as other business premises are open to customers. I took time out every afternoon for a lunch at Madam Edo restaurant, a bubbling eatery owned by a South-south lady. She too was also caught in the euphoria to get the city working at all costs.
As the news of the recent attacks hit me that fateful morning, my mind went to her and other heroes and heroines of the struggle for the new Yobe state. And she picked my call at the first dial at 4pm and her resolve lifted my spirit. “Oh thank God that you are alive”, I said to her with voice full of emotion and she in return,thanked me for remembering her at such a time.
“I’m sure you’re going to leave that town for good,” I said. “My brother, I cannot leave this city. This is the one place I have come to know well. They may have to kill all of us here.” With such resolve by a ‘foreigner’, I said to myself, Yobe would rise from the ashes again to become a prosperous state in spite of all the challenges.
But it indeed needs a helping hand in order to live her resolve in this dire time. The federal government must step in with more troops and beef up security around the schools and the entire state; it must set aside special funds to aid the state government in its development effort; it must increase the monthly allocation to that state to carter for those affected by the activities of the insurgents.
The Yobe state government has shown that with a little push from the federal government, it can cater for the numerous needs of the people by making life a lot better. This helping hand now appears to be a moral imperative on the part of the federal government.
Odeh wrote from High Level Makurdi, Benue State

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