In this interview, Malam Lawal Idris, a retired civil servant in Abuja explained why he opted for a university in Sudan for his daughter instead of Nigeria.
Why did you decide to send your daughter to a Sudanese university instead of one of the numerous tertiary institutions in Nigeria?
I took the decision due to cultural affinity. If you look at the Sudanese culture and that of some of us in northern Nigeria, we share a lot due to our Islamic religion. Although they speak Arabic, culturally, we don’t have much difference. Secondly, security in the nation’s capital was quite remarkable. Cases of banditry and other anti-social activities were not prevalent there. I can recall that an uncle to my wife who happened to be a student there once told me that he moved freely around 3am without any harassment. He could go to a bank’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to pick money without anyone harassing him. Also, their academic calendar is very smooth, unlike what we have here in Nigeria, where a university would hardly pass six months without coming up with an issue for a strike action. Also, issues of harassment of female students and cultism and other vices are not recorded there.
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What about the cost and quality of education there?
The quality of education in Sudan, especially that of Afriqiyya, could be attested to, going by the number of students that pass the medical exam annually. Those that graduate from the school fit in everywhere they find themselves in the profession. In terms of living cost, the students are fed by the school, which runs a private farm where cattle and chicken are reared, in addition to crop cultivation. Students are fed with chicken, eggs and milk. The school was built by three countries – Saudi Arabia, Morocco and the host country, Sudan. The school is being run in a more charitable way. The former Sudanese leader, Omar Albashir, made provision of maximum security and adequate care for the school during his time.
How do you feel about the raging war in Sudan?
When my daughter first informed me about it, I felt very bad and remembered how a similar incident happened to me in Lagos during the Okah coup against the Babangida regime. It was about five days to Eid-el- fitr when Okah struck.
My daughter told me that it is just a road that separates their school from the rebel’s barracks. And I learnt that every evening, the rebels would come towards the school to take shelter, thinking that the Sudanese army would not expect them to be there. There was a case of an army helicopter that was shot down by the rebels and it fell over the school’s mosque. A plane was also shot down around the school. The first one happened while the students were still around the school, while the second one came after the students were evacuated.
It’s about three weeks since the conflict started, how did you cope before their evacuation?
I was hardly able to sleep at nights, and when I was able to sleep, I would wake up after a while and remain awake till dawn. We always relied on our WhatsApp group, which started days after the conflict started. Everyone would share information received from his/her ward, and together we took the matter up.
We are very grateful to our two leaders in the group, a female who used to reach out to the authorities like the embassy, and another man, a retired journalist that encouraged us to voice out our concern to the world.
I hope the government and other donors that volunteered their aircraft would continue the exercise to evacuate the other stranded Nigerians there. Yes, I would allow my daughter back to the school if things get stabilised, to finish her studies.
How we survived Sudan war – Nigerian Students
Abdulqadir Sunusi and Saudat Lawal Idris are both 400 level students of Disaster Management and Pharmacy respectively at the International University of Africa, also known as Alafriqiyya University, Khartoum. They spoke to Daily Trust podcast on how they were caught up in the crisis, challenges, as well as their five-day experience at the Egyptian border.
Let’s start with Sunusi: How did you feel when the crisis broke out between the two former allies?
It was amazing, especially to foreign students and some locals. On the day of the incident, everyone left for their daily routines. For instance, some students were writing exams, so no one anticipated that anything like that would happen. All of a sudden, sounds of gunshots were heard and everyone panicked. It was later that we got to know that it was a confrontation between the Sudanese leader and the next person in command.
The unrest started in the country’s capital, Khartoum and later spilled to other states. It started on the night of the 25th day of Ramadan and everybody was panicking.
How did you feed under such traumatic situation?
It was a very difficult experience beyond what you can imagine. You can easily understand that from the students’ faces within a week into the crisis when we initially set to leave. One didn’t know where to go to access food. But with the school’s food storage, I think the issue became less severe as every student could at least get a little from the school meal.
It was reported that Nigeria lagged behind in the evacuation exercise compared to other countries, how did you feel seeing other foreign nationals being evacuated?
We really felt bad about how our country abandoned us in spite of being the most populous among other foreign nationals living in Khartoum. We are over 4,000 students. A request was made by the school authority to every embassy to come forward and get their students evacuated. But in the case of Nigeria, the mission officials kept telling us that the matter was yet to be approved in Nigeria. We kept rushing to every bus that came to the school, only to get disappointed that it had been provided by another country.
When six buses eventually arrived in respect to Nigerian students on a Tuesday night, at first many of us were reluctant to approach them, even on the following day, owing to previous disappointments. In the morning, the buses were increased to 10 and driven into the school premises. Males were the first to take over every seat in the buses, while women looked in shock.
The embassy later came up with an idea that the female students, as well as others and their children, would be given priority, using a state by state order.
The first batch left the school around 4pm, Sudanese time, on Wednesday, passing through destroyed buildings and military checkpoints belonging to the two warring factions. But it was obvious that the soldiers loyal to the vice president dominated the checkpoint in comparison to those loyal to the Sudanese military leader, General Burhan. We stopped at every checkpoint, but once we informed them about our identity—students of Afriqiyya University, they would allow us move. We made it to the Arqeel border on Friday.
How was life at the border community where you stayed for five days?
It was a difficult experience. You could burst into tears if you saw the condition of your co-travellers, especially the females. First, the location was away from people, you can call it a desert. There was no mobile phone network service. And everything for sale, like snacks, was old at double its initial price compared to Khartoum. Once it was sunset, the weather became extremely cold, and during the day the sun was harsh.
No one was bothered about dust or mosquitoes as they were considered minor cases. There was no one to seek assistance from as there was no official from the Nigerian embassy on ground, except one Hajiya, who was also struggling for survival, along with her three kids.
There were cases of confrontation between students and drivers who reportedly demanded extra charges. How did you overcome that?
Some of the drivers started complaining over the money given to them, which was just 30 per cent of the agreed charges, with a promise to pay the balance once they drove us out of Khartoum. Somewhere along the way, the Sudanese drivers stopped their buses in the desert, claiming that they were called upon by their company to return as the promise with the Nigerian embassy to balance the payment had not been honoured. There was also a case of four buses that refused to get to the border and made their way back to Khartoum, leaving their passengers stranded in the bush.
In the other case, some of the drivers who made it to the border became disappointed as the Nigerian officials that were supposed to remit their balance were nowhere to be found. The drivers deserved to be paid extra as they equally experienced the same difficulty like us during our days at the border, which was never anticipated.
What happened at the Aswan airport when you finally made it into Egypt?
After about five days at the Sudanese border with Egypt, most of our Khartoum drivers turned back to their country, either out of frustration or lack of license to operate in Egypt. So, on crossing into Egypt, the experience was entirely different as there were no crises there.
We met the Nigerian ambassador and other officials who welcomed us. We moved into different buses after crossing the border in the company of the Egyptian security men who ensured that no one escaped on the way to the Aswan airport.
A security man would accompany you in every move, even if you wanted to urinate. The trip took us about five hours to get to Aswan from the Sudan-Egypt border. At the airport, those of us that were lucky were issued with the flight boarding pass and got on the Air Peace with their luggage. Others like me ended up with the air force aircraft, while our luggage were put on Air Peace. There were also others that could not make their way back to the country with their luggage.
How did you feel when you made it back to Nigeria?
We are very grateful to the Almighty Allah, and of course, our country for making it possible for us to meet with our family again. The agony is still fresh in our minds. How we got disconnected from communication for about five days while at the border was one of the very difficult situations to deal with. Few of us with the Sudanese mobile phone network, as well as those with the Nigerian Zain mobile network, regained network services after crossing the border. On arrival, we were assisted with N100,000 each from the Dangote Foundation, while some of us got the MTN talking gift of N25,000 with the data package put together. We thank the Almighty for sparing our lives and making it back to the country with our credentials.
For Saudat: How did you cope with the situation?
It was a terrible situation indeed. It was the first time for me to witness such experience. It was very scary and there was no idea of what one should do. That was the first time I heard gunshots and bombs exploding in reality.
Initially, the school authority directed female students in the first block to move to another one in the centre, and later, to the last block. But as the situation kept getting worse, the school provided some buses and every student was taken out within five hours of the conflict.
We were divided into three groups. Some students squatted at the residence of the school’s vice chancellor, others were taken to the home of his assistant, while the third group lodged at the conference hall belonging to the school. We were there for five days before we were taken to another location, where we spent three days before we embarked on the evacuation process.
