Borno Enrols Fulani IDPs Children In Schools

By Ahmed Abu, The Nigerian Voice, Maiduguri

With the emerging relative peace being enjoyed in Borno state and other parts of the north east, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has directed El Kanemi School of Theology Maiduguri to enrol 1000 children of the herdsmen IDPs into nursery and prinary school in addition to the iver 700 orohans already enrolled into nursery and primary sections of the school.

So far, about 517 children of displaced Fulani herdsmen have been registered in the school.

It was gathered that the state government's gesture covered only the children of the herdsmen who were victims of Boko Haram insurgents, cattle rustling that were forced to flee their communities to Maiduguri, the state capital for safety.

In an interview with some of the children, one Halimatu Sadiya Alhaji Hassan, a 14 year old girl who was one of the 517 beneficiaries of the Borno state Fulani/Bororo scholarship scheme said ," We are grateful and happy to enter school and learn western education. We will study. We will bit EYN away because we like it. Our parents also like it".

“Before now I was not in school, I was just sitting at home doing nothing. Then Baba Kashim came and put me in school," Halima said.

“He bought everything for me; he bought me uniforms, books and everything I need for school. He gave us a car to take us to school and back home; they even give us food twice in school. I would like to be a doctor when I finish school.”

Also, Halima’s father, Alhaji Hassan Nagulla, commended the State Governor, Alhaji Kashim Shettima for the gesture and prayed God to help and protect him.

“May Allah cause other governors to hear and learn from what the Borno State Governor , Kashim Shettima has done for us,” Hassan said.

It will be recalled that Borno State is one of the states in the north east that has been largely affected by the Boko Haram insurgency since 2009 when their leader, Mohammed Yusuf is believed to have died in police detention.

This instigated book harm sect members to carry out deadly uprising on the law enforcement agents and wanton destruction of public and private property that has been a global issue including abduction of over 200 pupils of Chibok GGSS schoolgirls that majority are largely Christian, forcefully married them and conscripted them into Islam.