The project’s commissioning gave hope to hundreds of orphaned and displaced children across the state that they could get both free and quality education. With every passing year, that hope gets even dimmer as the facilities lie in waste.
If you are driving down Bama Road in Maiduguri, it is almost impossible not to notice the structure. Even if you miss the twin swing gates coated in ash and white, how could you not see the gatehouse in between them and the towering entrance arc? Without a signpost, one would be forgiven for thinking this was the address of a government agency or maybe even a palatial private residence. But once you peer through the gates and see the colourful playground in the distance, you will realise at once what it is, and you might wonder: If this is a school, where are the students?
The Aliko Dangote Primary School in Borno State, northeastern Nigeria has not had students since it was commissioned over four years ago.
The school, named after Africa’s richest man, was constructed under the administration of former Borno governor Kashim Shettima, who is now Vice President of Nigeria. It is situated right in the middle of the 202 and 303 housing estates on a piece of land that used to host a partly constructed shopping complex and a football pitch.
The 40 classrooms are equipped with interactive whiteboards, digital teaching aids, adequate furniture, air conditioners, and vivid artwork.
It also has a dormitory built to accommodate 1,000 students who are displaced orphans. The school would then take in 600 more children from the host communities who would enrol as day students. There is a library, kitchen, playground, water reservoir, stand-by generating set, and boarding hall. Because of all this, the facility is often described glowingly as a “mega” school.
The project was intended to serve mostly vulnerable children whom the Boko Haram insurgency had victimised. Shettima disclosed in 2017 that up to 52,311 children were orphaned by the crisis, stating that the best assistance that could be provided to these children was more investments in their education. His administration set out to do just that.
On April 26, 2019, the then president Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Aliko Dangote Primary School and other projects across Maiduguri. “As demonstrated by Governor Shettima, it is essential to give priority attention to primary school education in order to ensure formidable education at the tertiary level in line with international best practices,” he said.
It is not clear how much was spent on this project, but the state government approved the sum of ₦3.5 billion ($4.6 million) for the “construction/provision of public schools” for the Ministry of Education between 2017 and 2018. In the same period, an additional ₦350 million ($460,000) was earmarked for the Borno State Agency for Mass Education for the construction and rehabilitation of public schools for internally displaced children.
Shettima noted during a 2017 visit by Nobel laureate and female education activist Malala Yousafzai that his government also spent $3 million to send teachers to India to learn how to use the K-Yan teaching aid.
Ibrahim, 60, a resident of the host community whose name has been changed because he is a civil servant, remembers the excitement during the launch.
“People were saying, at least, if the hostels were given to orphans, our children could attend as day students. We would not have to spend money on transport. We were all happy. If you get relief from school fees and transportation, it is a great joy. It is free education. Even the uniforms and textbooks are free.”
“Everybody was so excited,” he stressed.
He added that people in the neighbouring communities hoped the school would take off because alternatives, such as the University Of Maiduguri Staff Primary School and Demonstration Secondary School, were too expensive.
Ibrahim has worked with the local government for 31 years and is currently a level 15 officer (the highest level being 17). Despite multiple paper promotions during the period, he has earned the same salary since 2011: ₦32,800 ($43). He explained that the mega primary school would have been a lifesaver to people like him who barely earn the national minimum wage.
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