Security in Nigeria

Emily, the VSO who is also from Bournemouth, has summarised the political situation in Nigeria for the past year. You can read her blog post here http://emily-in-nigeria.blogspot.com/2011/10/happy-birthday-nigeria-51-today.html

This encourages me too to also write about this situation. And the truth is that VSOs (and possibly everyone in the whole country) lives with this constant reminder and threats of Boko Haram.

VSO regularly sends us information on which states and towns we can or cannot visit due to safety reasons. But many VSOs are living and working in these towns where bombs have been set off. Some VSOs even live in places where there is a curfew in place for safety reasons.

An education conference was held in our town last week in which people travelled from the whole country to attend. There was heavy police presence around and as I walked to the office I asked some policemen who were guarding a dusty road that leads to farms, why they were here. “To protect the people and the houses of the town,” was the reply.
Of course, the thought crossed my mind that we could be bombed that week.

We are often advised by VSO or the British High Commission Travel Advice, not to visit drinking places, or stay out late, or attend any celebrations or public gatherings. What kind of a life for a western VSO is that!?

The day after the police headquarters were bombed in Abuja we had guests so went to visit our police headquarters in Dutse (the place to get beer and fish), not because we are looking to get bombed but because there is no point in living in fear.

Although, of course, we need to be cautious of the situation, in my opinion I am far more likely to die on the roads than by a bomb or any other attack.

VSO said they are struggling to recruit volunteers in Nigeria at the moment and it is not surprising due to the above issues.

But to conclude: Despite the above, I feel safe in Nigeria. I really enjoy my work and the town I live in. My parents came to visit and they too enjoyed Nigeria. I have met many wonderful people, had so many amazing experiences and learnt so much from Nigeria. Thus, I am happy to be in Nigeria and continue my work as a VSO volunteer, promoting and improving the quality of Primary Education.

1 Year Old in Nigeria

I am happy to announce that I have reached my 1 year mark for my VSO experience here in Dutse, Jigawa State. And although I have been here for over a year now, I am still having many new experiences.

Here is one ‘wonderful’ example that I would like to share with you:

At the end of August we celebrated the Muslim festival Eid ul-Fitr which marks the end of the fasting period of Ramadan and once again we enjoyed the 3 day long parading of horses, music and dancing throughout the town, known as the Durbar.

Then, happily trekking back from a different adventure a few days later (greeting our guards wives) we witnessed many children playing ‘Durbar!’ They had made horses out of sticks, with cardboard for the nose, feathers for ears and scraps of material for the decoration to resemble the horse’s costumes from the Durbar. You can see turbans and huge gowns made from cardboard. They are shaking their fist as that is how you greet the Emir. It is a sign of respect and meaning ‘may you live long.’

I am happy to share this with you as I don’t often see children playing. It seems to me that they have little time to play as they are either attending one of their many schools or completing the necessary chores of daily life.

Ranka ya dade! (May they live long!)

Muslim women in Jigawa State

The females in the SSIT had the idea to make a uniform for themselves. This is usually only done for special occassions such as weddings. The men were very upset not to be included! Girl Power!

Jigawa State is predominantly Muslim and the vast majority of women in Jigawa State practice Purdah.

My basic understanding of Purdah here is that the women are to stay in the house to be secluded from the men and the community. The women are not even allowed to go to the market to buy food or to the well to collect water. These tasks are carried out by the men and children. Muslim women can only leave the house in an emergency, for example, if they need to visit the hospital. In these cases the women must wear a burka which covers their whole face and body, leaving only a small slit for the eyes.

Because of this practice, men are not allowed to visit other men in their houses, as they are not allowed to see the wives. If a man enters another man’s house, the wife must move to another room. So mostly the men meet outside the houses and gather together on benches or mats under trees.

As you can then guess, my contact with women in Nigeria has been minimal.

Statistics of Muslim women I have met:

When I first arrived in Nigeria the SSIT (State School Improvement Team) consisted of 30 men. Upon orders from the Head Quarters thankfully 4 women were enrolled. These women (in the photo above) have of course, become my friends. They say that they do not need to wear the burka to our meetings, or to the schools they support, as these people in the workplace know them well now. When it comes to the lunch break during workshops, these female SSIT take themselves to another room to eat their food, relax and take of their hijabs or veils, to cool off a bit! They leave their shoes clearly visable by the door so the men know not to enter.

Amongst the other group of 36 teachers that I work with for the Tsangaya project there are no female teachers. This is not surprising as these Tsangaya teachers are highly religious

We have just begun to train some Fulani (nomadic) teachers and out of the 49 teachers there are 3 females! Horay!

There are no Muslim women in our office, but thankfully there are 2 Christian women.

When I go to support the work in Kano I am privileged to work alongside a very influential Muslim woman.

Whenever I am fortunate to meet a Muslim woman in the workplace they are very friendly and greet me warmly with a handshake or sometimes a hug if I have seen them more than once.

Muslim women that I see on the streets or in the villages have given me a mixed response with some being very friendly and others so cautious that they walk as far away from me as possible when our paths cross!

Things that made me smile last week. . .

1. I met a man (slim changes it would be a female) who told me he had been to England. His second sentence was: ‘There are no goats in England!’ Here in Dutse, it would be very strange to go out and not see a goat on the streets.

2. I visited a very large primary school to meet a Head Teacher and I found him sat at his desk listening to the radio because he had nothing else to do!!! When I asked to borrow the curriculum, he couldn’t find any.

3. I had my first experience of being sick here in Nigeria, (food poisoning) and actually vomited in a primary school. (That bit didn’t make me smile.) So I take to my bed and spend the rest of the day sleeping, only to have to continuously get up, quickly change to make myself presentable as I was of course sleeping in my pyjamas and looked a mess, and greet visitors. It didn’t take me long to realise that I should just sleep in my clothes ready for the next visitor.

4. Whilst supporting class teacher training I discovered one group of teachers who were counting to 11 had missed out numbers 7 and 8! (Eyes up to heaven as I smile.)

5. Half of the class of class teachers were seriously debating that prime numbers is something that should be taught in Class 2!!! (Breathing deeply to stay calm as I smile.)

6. Watching the sunset over the rocks with friends.

Muslim Men in Jigawa State

These young men are actually from Kano State (a neighbouring state). They are posing in an English fashion, i.e. smiling - Nigerian's normally just keep a straight face.

• Every morning when the men greet they shake hands very enthusiastically and pat each other on the back. You may still find them shaking hands five minutes later.



• If a joke is told, they shake hands very hard with the person who told the joke or anyone close to them.



• Men wear very long (down to their ankles) kaftans or shirts, usually in a light colour, that they hitch up when they sit down. This must be accompanied by a cap to be seen as respectable.



• You can easily find men and boys dressed in pink or purple or wearing very flowery prints!



• Men are not allowed to shake hands with women.



• Men do not eat with women.



• Do not be surprised to see men walking and holding hands! (But never a male and female holding hands.) Females too walk about holding hands with each other.



• In Kano some men (see photo) lead a workshop for female teachers. They are not allowed to sit at the tables with the females. They cannot even stand in the circle with them when teaching them a game.



• Muslim men can have up to 4 wives. It is very important for them to treat each wife equally.



• It is common for Muslim men not to let their wives leave the house unless it is an emergency, for example, to visit the hospital.



• It is the man’s job to shop in the market to buy food and supplies.



• Men are the ‘masters of the house.’ They are in charge of everything.



• Men never cook.



• They love to hold babies and young children, even if not their own.