Doing by the spirit and content of 1999 constitution which says, the primary purpose of governance is the welfare and security of the citizens, 2017 is better declared as the year of Liberated Sambisa Forest. Since 2013, (or well before then!) the Boko Haram insurgents forcefully occupied the great Forest – Sambisa Game Reserve – which hitherto, hosted as many “17 species of mammals” that include, baboon, patas monkey, tantalus monkey, Grimm’s duiker, red-fronted gazelle, African bush elephant, roan antelope, hartebeest, African leopard and spotted hyenas. The insurgent group transformed a legacy game reserve into a base of serial terror attacks against the Federal Republic. The Sambisa Forest the mountainous region of Gwoza near the Cameroon border, under the heel of the insurgents also became a “shelter”, where they kept hundreds of hostages that included the celebrated Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in April 2014. Yours truly also joins all Nigerians to salute President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Army for the historic feet in liberating and capturing Sambisa Forest from the clutches of the terrorist Boko Haram. I agree with Alumni Association of the National Institute, AANI, Kuru Jos that, “With the singular globally acknowledged gallantry of the Nigerian army, President Muhammadu Buhari has commendably restored the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the pride of all Nigerians in line with the spirit and content of 1999 constitution. Nigerians at home and in Diaspora are proud of the enormous sacrifices and patriotism of the Army high command and the troops of the Operation Lafiya Dole on the successful capture of the Boko Haram enclave in Sambisa Forest.” Worth of note is also the remarkable unity of purpose among all the security agencies namely the Nigerian army, Air force, DSS, DIA and the police as well as members of Civilian Joint Task Force, in the combat against Boko Haram which has just led to the sacking of Sambisa forest enclave. The liberation of Sambisa Forest further confirms the received wisdom that if there is the political will, there will always be some way. President Buhari as commander in chief at onset commendably called the insurgents what they are: criminals and terrorists. He relocated the commands headquarters to the North East with a deadline that has largely been met and finally dammed the insurgents who are now on the run. I agree that the eventual liberation of Sambisa forest further underscores the fact that the Nigerian army well-funded and motivated remains one of the best armies in the world. All said, after the military defeat of terrorism, it’s time the federal government addressed the ideological and material underpinnings of Boko Haram menace.
The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, is already commendably proactively thinking on how to make a productive use of the forest. Last week he said Sambisa would serve as training ground for personnel of the Nigerian Army as from this year 2017.
“We are also opening up roads to Sambisa and Alagarno forest. Sambisa forest is going to be one of our training grounds”, he reportedly said. It’s time the federal and Borno state governments start thinking of post- liberated Sambisa Forest. The critical question is how we arrived at the situation in which vast lands meant for national development and even games reserve turned into killing mined fields in the hands of insurgents. Many analysts have interpreted the Boko Haram insurgency, from the ideological to the economic. What is of interest to yours comradely remains the urgent need to reinvent public education, precisely my reflection in 2009, when Boko Haram insurgency played out in major streets of Maiduguri. We should not treat Boko Haram as a law and order issue. Yes, we must profile the band as criminals and crush them summarily at all costs as Nigerian army has commendably done. But beyond liberating the forest, we must make it habitable for both humans and animals in a prosperous Nigeria. We must do the roads, open up our vast territories for development as the Chinese have done with their vast provinces. We should keep kidnappers, cattle rustlers and inure gents out of businesses with vast rail networks, electricity, schools, factories and productive activities in general. The lower hanging fruit is reinvention of public education. Well before the North east’s eruption and carnage, UNESCO has warned that there is a renewed insurgency of new illiteracy in Nigeria as a result of mass school non-enrolments and mass drop outs in Nigeria. Boko Haram is a rude metaphor for the collapse of public education in general and the earlier the council for education holds emergency meeting just like the joint Security Council meeting, the better. Whether our youths prefer guns in place of pens (Niger Delta) girl children are sent in place of boy children (South East) or youths register with untested pastors or imams, the issue is that there is a crisis of confidence in public education in Nigeria. In the final analysis, what we have at hand is nothing but governance crisis. With only 25% of girls and 29% of boys in secondary schools, Nigeria is ever a disaster waiting to happen as it has happened with enormous human costs in the North east. The existing elitist privatized schools will at best produce few citizens that will manage inherited private properties (stolen or earned) while the majority left out become followers of kidnappers and lunatic fanatics but certainly none will deliver expected growth rate for national development. The most valuable asset is a well-educated populace which can only come through public education. Only public education will break the myth of the silly divide between “Western” and “non-Western” education. Education is not divisible. Education is inherently a public good. Happy new year to you all.

By Issa Aremu, mni