Standup9ja: Why UNIMAID is under siege
Lt.-Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, Chief of Army Staff and
Professor Ibrahim Njodi, VC, University of Maiduguri
In the wake of the Boko Haram crisis in 2009, the University
of Maiduguri was never a target despite several attacks. At a time, other
institutions of learning in the state were closed.
The vice chancellor of the university, Prof. Ibrahim Njodi,
had explained that sheer determination not to interrupt the school’s curriculum
was among the key reasons he refused to shut down the university while Boko
Haram insurgents were on rampage in Borno State, the capital city and its
environs.
Njodi, who spoke in Abuja at the launch of a book titled,
Elementary Marketing for Senior Secondary Schools, co-authored by Chima Azu and
Razaq Abdullahi, said he resisted the pressure by both parents and stakeholders
to shut down the school for fear of attacks because he believed that such a
move would have been defeatist in nature.
The optimistic vice chancellor said he put his trust in God
that none of the students of UNIMAID would be a victim of attack by Boko Haram,
and simply intensified vigilance with the use of the school’s local security
watch and the assistance of the Joint Military Task Force posted to the state.
Indeed, at the height of the Boko Haram crisis, UNIMAID was
the most peaceful environment in the whole of Borno State, to the extent that
one could stay in the campus for many months, unperturbed by the enduring sound
of bomb blasts, gunshots and other inconveniences.
This is in spite of the fact that within that period,
various organisations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International,
Human Rights Watch and governments in the North-East, estimated that over 1,500
schools had been destroyed in the region, including 524 in Borno State. The
University of Maiduguri, therefore, became the only institution that remained
standing.
However, the vice chancellor and the entire community of the
institution are now having sleepless nights as the Boko Haram terrorists have
shifted their bombardment to the university community, thereby leaving no
oxygen in the environment for anyone to breathe.
One attack too many
Between January 16 and June 25 - a period spanning six
months - the university community was hit with six suicide bomb blasts. The
first, which occurred on January 16 and considered as the most deadly, was at
the Junior Staff Quarters Mosque, where Professor Aliyu Mani, the director of
the university’s veterinary teaching hospital, and four others died.
The second was on April 3, while the third, fourth and fifth
were on 13, 25 and 27 of last month respectively. One security personnel
working in the university under one of the security agencies, to which the
institution’s authorities outsourced the security, lost his life. In all the
three other blasts, only the suicide bombers killed themselves.
The latest attack at the university was the one that
occurred on Sunday, June 25, which led to the death of no fewer than 16 in a
coordinated suicide bombings that also affected Zannari, a community near the
campus.
Little wonder even residents of settlements behind the
university have cried out that they are being threatened by the unrelenting
insurgents to vacate their homes. These places include Dunomari, Ngubdori, Garin
Maliki, Jiddari, Tamsugamdu, Garin Kwayam, Zaragaji, Jelta Kawu.
Similarly, villagers that live along the same plain with the
settlements mentioned above but much closer to the Maimalari Barracks, equally
said they were having challenges and threats from the Boko Haram. They include
Ganyeri, Subdu Buraye, Tugushe Gana, Ngaranam, Dubai, Chabbal Abbari, Chabbal
Ngubdori, Tungushe Kura, among others.
Established in 1975, the institution is situated in the
outskirt of the town, along Maiduguri-Konduga-Bama road, which also leads to
the main entrance of the infamous Sambisa forest at Kawuri, where the Boko
Haram insurgents had their sanctuary for nearly five years.
There are varied opinions from the university community,
security authorities, the Borno State Government, residents, activists and
security experts as to why the university is now a soft target for Boko Haram
assailants.
While some experts are of the belief that the university is
too porous and therefore, susceptible to attacks, others attribute it to the
resurgence of attacks in communities around the state capital, as well as the
infiltration of Boko Haram agents into settlements around the university after
their dislodgement from the Sambisa forest.
Yet some have blamed the trend on the reduction of troops
from Borno State and the alteration of the security architecture.
“Obviously, the safety of UNIMAID cannot be treated in
isolation from the safety of Maiduguri town itself.
“It would be erroneous to think that the University of
Maiduguri will be completely safe when Maiduguri, and indeed, many parts of
Borno State, is bleeding,” said security expert, Abdul Mohammed, a retired
colonel of the Nigerian Army.
Other reasons given by experts include lack of equipment for
troops to take the war to the Boko Haram assailants, fatigue in those that have
been on ground amidst poor motivation and above all, laxity on the side of
those handling the fight under the euphoria that the terrorists have been
subdued.
To some security analysts, therefore, the claim that Boko
Haram miscreants are now having a field day around the university cannot be
dismissed, considering the fact that with a total population of over 60,000 students,
including those pursuing distance learning programmes and over 4,000 academic
and non-academic staff, is sitting on a vast and sprawling land totaling over
40sq kilometers.
More disturbing is the fact that the eastern plank of the
university is equally vulnerable as it is only dotted by small hamlets, and
behind the settlements is nothing but endless unoccupied land that leads to
other towns afar, on the way to Nigeria’s border with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Porous environment
For now, less than 40 per cent of the large swathe of the
entire university is being utilised, making it easier for trespassers to
penetrate.
And besides the fencing of some few kilometers of the
frontage of the university with blocks (beginning from the Mairi neighborhood
while approaching the campus from Maiduguri), the remaining frontage only had
metal fence, while the back of the entire university was only covered with
trenches that were dug at the height of the insurgency.
Though soldiers, some plain clothed policemen and Department
of State Service (DSS) operatives had been deployed to the university to
complement the in-house security personnel employed by the university, their
combined strength could not match the intimidating circumference of the entire
campus.
In 2014, when attacks were a recurrent decimal in Maiduguri
and it was practically impossible to have security operatives everywhere, the
Borno State Government, in collaboration with the military, carved nearly 100
kilometres circumference around the state capital and dug deep trenches.
The trenches started from Jimtilo, along the
Maiduguri-Damaturu road, through the neighbourhoods of Bakassi, Molai in Damboa
road, the 21 Armoured Brigade, across Dikwa road along Customs area, up to the
Maimalari Barracks area, the Maximum Prisons along Baga road and behind the
Garrison Command of the Nigerian Army, along Pompomari area.
The trenches had, for three years, deterred Boko Haram
insurgents from getting into Maiduguri in large convoys because no vehicle
could get into the town without passing through checkpoints mounted at the four
major entry points.
However, overtime, sandstorm, occasioned by rain, refilled
some of the trenches; hence providing opportunity for encroachment. It is the
same trench that gave cover to the university from behind.
This explains why the university was never closed since the
advent of the Boko Haram crisis in 2009, even at a time when all institutions
of learning in the state were closed.
Rumpus on campus
Three days after the latest attack, trade unions in the
university threatened to disrupt the academic calendar of the school should the
Federal Government fail to act on the reoccurring attacks on the school.
The leader of the unions and chairman, Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Dani Mamman, stated this on Wednesday at a press
conference in Maiduguri.
Dr. Mamman said ASUU, as well as the Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU),
National Association of Academic Technologies (NATT) and the Student Union
Government (SUG) of the university were compelled to bring to the notice of the
public, the security situation and threatens to life in UNIMAID.
He disclosed that 70 professors and other members of staff
who fled the university in the wake of attacks in Maiduguri had started
returning, only to be confronted with the new spate of suicide bombings within
the school premises.
The unions accused the Federal Government of being
insensitive to the security threats by Boko Haram terrorists in the
institution, adding that the purported inaction by government on the security
situation was giving a boost to the Boko Haram ideology.
“Boko Haram proclaims western education as forbidden and the
University of Maiduguri is at the forefront of championing western education in
the country. So for Boko Haram, sustained attacks on the university would
accentuate their wild ideology,” Mamman said.
He stressed that increasing attacks in Borno State had shown
that the insurgents were regrouping, and called on the government to wake up to
its responsibility.
Mamman urged the Federal Government to build a perimeter
fence around the varsity and approve the N2.8 billion requested by the
university authority to procure modern security equipment to stop Boko Haram
from executing ‘greater attacks’ on the campus.
Earlier, Governor Kashim Shettima visited the university and
assessed different scenes of the multiple suicide attacks, and thereafter
approved the immediate release of N50million to dig trenches behind the
university, which covers 27 kilometers, and to support the deployment of
vigilantes.
A statement by his spokesman, Isa Umar Gusau, revealed that
the governor had, two weeks earlier, mobilised bulldozers to start the digging
as a way of responding to previous attacks.
“The trenches are being designed to make it impossible for
insurgents to drive into the university, as well as create difficulty for them
to cross on foot, while the military will take advantage of the situation to
neutralise their activities,” he said.
The statement said the acting vice chancellor, Aliyu Shugaba,
who conducted Shettima round the scenes, revealed that the university had
requested for N2.8 billion from the Federal Government to enable it fence the
school.
‘Trenches alone cannot guarantee security’
Salihu Bakari, a retired major, said while it is good to dig
trenches around the university, erecting a “double-deck fence” is the best.
“Remember that the Boko Haram never attempted to drive into
the university in hoards, they only send suicide bombers who can seamlessly
find their way through the trench and sneak into the campus quietly.
“In order climes, apart from building the trench, you erect
high walls and another fence with cables inside, but you can only do these if
you minimise the area you want to protect.
“If you do these, it would be practically impossible for the
suicide bombers to scale the fence because the bombs stripped to their bodies
would detonate before they climb,” he said.
Another officer who participated in combating the Boko Haram
before he was transferred to another location insisted that UNIMAID could not
be protected without securing Maiduguri as a whole. He said though it was not
made public, hundreds of officers and men of the Nigerian Army have been
redeployed.
“Go round Maiduguri and see if soldiers are there. We only
have them in some places around the outskirts, and this is not the way to go
about it. The downsizing came about due to the false belief that the threat had
been reduced, but unfortunately, the reverse is the case as can be seen from
the current attacks, especially on the Damboa/Biu road axis.
“My recent visit did not give me much confidence that we
have the right equipment or tactics and the personnel to end the crisis within
the shortest possible time. In fact, I make bold to say that if the present
approach is not changed, we might be in this mess for years.
“This is due to the additional equipment Boko Haram have
acquired and the fact that the rains have made movements difficult for our
military,” he said.
The Director of Defence Information (DDI), Maj-Gen John
Enenche, said on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily in the wake of the attack on
UNIMAID, that the terror group no longer had a central command.
He said: “They don’t have a central command. They are not as
coordinated as people think. They have dissenting views, and before you say
anything, they can disintegrate. There are several factions of them, and these
are the people that have already acquired the little technology of making these
explosives and these IEDs.”
Enenche said that compared to cases in the past, the
insurgents now only focused on soft targets, causing a relatively low number of
casualties.
“Looking at what just happened (at UNIMAID), 16 casualties,
seven terrorists and nine innocent people, it is unfortunate that we had to
lose those nine people. But when you look again at the comparative analysis of
the whole thing, we are making progress,” he said.
Responding to the question of why the University of
Maiduguri appears to be a regular target of the insurgents, General Enenche
explained that the insurgents had always been against western education; hence
the attacks.
Vigilantes offer helping hand
The Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), Borno State command,
has expressed readiness to partner with the institution to forestall future
occurrences of the incident.
The assistant commander (administration) of the group,
Mohammed Abbas Gava, told Daily Trust on Sunday in Maiduguri that his group was
willing to intervene and bring the series of suicide bomb attacks on the
university to an end.
“Security has degenerated around UNIMAID due to lack of
guard mobilisation, and if our services would be required, we are ready to
safeguard the institution. My command could mobilise up to 200 of our members
for two shifts everyday - 100 at night
and another 100 during the day,” Gava
said.
Also speaking, the secretary-general of the Borno State
Vigilante Association, Bunu M. Bukar, said in their contribution towards
averting attacks on the university, the community vigilante group had deployed
a sizable number of their members to keep vigil over the university and its
surroundings, partly on the behest of the institution’s management and partly
out of concern for their children.
“Apart from 50 of our members currently stationed within the
campus of the University of Maiduguri, we stationed 40 more at the nearby
Dalori village to keep vigil over the eastern side of the institution, and
notify the 50 within the campus whenever they observe suspected suicide bombers
sneaking towards the institution’s fence in an effort to forestall possible
suicide bomb attacks,” he said.
The university’s Director of Publicity, Professor Danjuma
Gambo, in a telephone conversation, also told Daily Trust on Sunday that the
institution’s management was taking preliminary measures to avert future
occurrence pending the implementation of more effective measures to be
introduced by the Federal and Borno State governments.
“Fortunately, the Federal and Borno State governments have
understood our plight and are sympathising with us. The community vigilante
group is also supporting the conventional security agents like the Army, the
Police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to beef up security in and
around the institution.
He also said: “The university is presently under a 24-hour
security patrol, especially at its eastern flank, most frequently penetrated by
the suicide bombers. These are preliminary measures as we await the
comprehensive measures from the security agents and government,” Gambo said
The university management seems so perplexed with the grisly
turn the bombers have now made at the institution. This perplexity now seems to
inch towards drawing political inferences, implying that some invisible persons
have resolved to plant insecurity in the only conventional and most populous
university in the North-East. The authorities seem to believe that anything of
this sort is plausible.
Why UNIMAID remains open despite attacks
The management holds up this argument as credible,
considering what they describe as the institution being the intellectual and
socio-economic nerve centre of the surrounding northeastern states. It is the
only conventional university in the region - all others are specialised. This
is premised on their argument, that should the university close for a day, the
livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people, especially in Borno State, would
be in quandary.
This, they reveal, is why, in spite of the fact that over 80
per cent of the university community resides inside the campus, they took a
policy that whatever the spate of bombings, they would not close the
institution for even a day. And the students themselves seem to have resolved
to protest should the management attempt closing the institution for a day
‘just because of bombings.’ They rest their argument on the belief that should
they close the institution because of bomb blasts, they would either be closing
it too many times that could gravely impact on its academic performance or
close it to the unforeseeable future, considering the fact that the last of
such blasts may not have been heard yet.
To demonstrate the university community’s resilience to bomb
blasts, the last three blasts are said to have occurred when the Universal
Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was going on at the university
campus. The blasts never scared the JAMB candidates, who went in and sat for
the examination unruffled as if nothing traumatising was occurring.
Comrade Abu-Hanifa Babati, the president of the Student
Union Government (SUG) of the institution, said: “We have come here to study.
We believe that nothing can stop us from studying. We have been in this
environment for a long time. Bomb blasts have been taking place for a long
time, so we resolved to go on with our academic and other normal activities and
cooperate with the institution’s management to achieve its goal. Students
believe that the University of Maiduguri is the best; this is why we developed
resilience to bomb blasts.
“We have a platform through which we send messages to
students on security enhancement measures. We have opened a facebook account
and WhatsApp, through which we send messages to students. We have also been
preaching to the students to be extra vigilant and report suspicious movements
anywhere on campus to either the SUG or the university management,” he said.
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