Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

Mrs. Rachael Alamu recounts 56 days in captivity with her pupils.  By Njideka Maduka   There are interviews that report the news, and there are interviews that preserve history.  For 56 days, the forest became a classroom without walls, a shelter without a roof, and a prison without certainty. Mrs. Rachael Alamu, Principal of Community High School, Esiele, lived through that ordeal alongside her pupils after they were abducted in Oyo State by terrorists. In this interview granted few days after their rescue, she speaks with remarkable composure about fear, faith, survival, the resilience of the children, and the hope that kept them going. Among the many striking moments in the interview, one sentence captures the faith that sustained them through those difficult days: "We survived because we believed people were praying for us." Below is the interview transcript which I personally extracted from a television interview.  REPORTER: Now you've taken us through ...

Si nce 2009, Nigeria has seen a steady descent into violence — from Boko Haram’s insurgency to the herdsmen crisis, banditry, kidnappings, and regional unrest. This long-form essay draws from personal experience, historical events, and current realities to examine what has gone wrong with Nigeria’s security architecture and why. It’s not just about bad policy; it’s about leadership, ideology, silence, and systemic failure. The Genesis Nigeria’s security situation took a nosedive beginning in 2009. It was the period Boko Haram began to rear its ugly head. I remember that year vividly — I was a youth corps member serving in one of the northern states. There was slight tension in our area on one of those days. Information would later trickle in that some people were propagating a variant form of Islam, contrary to what was the norm. We would later see some soldiers at night around our lodges. To be honest, I was totally ignorant of what all of that meant or the possible future impact. E...