A dilapidated military school in Zaria, Kaduna State, has a new lease of life, with the restoration of military drills and refurbished infrastructure. ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE reports
The idea was great at inception: instruct the boys for academic excellence and prepare them for military career. But for six years at the Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria, training in weapons handling was suspended, leaving the boys essentially with academic instruction. Worse, NMS infrastructure fell into bad weather. Now, change has come. The boys have resumed training in weapons handling, and as they pass out this Saturday they will also be enlisted in the army. That is not all. NMS infrastructures are also coming to life. Facilities are upgraded and some non-existent ones put in place. It is a new deal for the military school. Our correspondent who toured the military institution reports that morale of the awaiting soldiers was high.
The Nigerian Military School was established in 1954 when the West African Command of the Royal West African Frontier Force called for the establishment of Boys Company to be patterned after the Boys Wing of the British Army in each of the four colonies of Nigeria, the Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone and The Gambia. It was established “to inculcate a family tradition into the force” by enrolling children of serving Nigerian Army personnel to be trained as soldiers to replace the departing colonial Non-Commissioned Officers.
At inception it had a population of 30 boys divided into four Houses, namely Exam, Inglis, Fairbanks and Swynuerton. The name was changed to the Nigerian Military School in 1960 and the names of the companies were changed to prominent Nigerian cities. Currently, the school has a population of 1,222 Boys divided into seven companies of Kaduna, Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Abuja, Calabar and Zaria.
Since its establishment, the school combined standard secondary school curriculum with military training, while its graduates got automatic enlistment into the army. But, six years ago, full military training was suspended at the institution, due to United Nations’ complaints against what they called child soldiering.
However, having justified the need for the existence of the institution and the fact that the standard age of its graduates is 18 years, the army authority under Lt. General Tukur Yusuf Buratai returned full military training to the school last year.
A top management staff of the school told The Nation that the boys have now mastered the use of arms since the return of the arms training last year.
“The United Nations child soldier issue was what led to the suspension of the military training, but on the other hand, we have similar institutions presently in United States of America and UK and other countries of the world. In fact, there is a leader of one of the military schools from UK, who came to this school recently”.
“By the way, this is a government approved institution; there is no way you can accuse government institution of involving in child soldiering. It is a government approved institution, and again this institution was established in 1954, it was in existence when we had the unfortunate Nigerian civil war, and these boys were trained on weapon handling, and were enlisted into the army after graduation, but none was taken to the war front to fight. This shows clearly that there is no form of child soldering,” the source said.
Our Correspondent also observed that, the spirit of the passing out NMS boys was high at the time of the visit, not only because they will soon join that nation’s armed forces, but also because they all passed their West African Examination Council (WAEC) in flying colours.
The academic excellence according to the commandant of the institution, Brigadier General Mohammed Mukhtar Bunza, was achieved because the school management has always ensured a balance between the academic and military training, in such that one does not affect the other.
General Bunza said, “The school has largely succeeded in the combination of the two trainings. We have the education wing that is responsible for the academic activities in line with the national policy of education implemented in the school, and in addition to this, we also have a military wing that ensures that this boys are equally trained as professional soldiers. So, these are the two things that the school does in ensuring that both are achieved without one interfering with another. All aspects of military training are being taught in the school, we carry out all normal practical exercises for them to also see before going out to the field to see”.
Also in the area of infrastructure, the military school stands out amidst other government secondary schools established before and shortly after independence. The college’s Commandant however disclosed that, there is no magic to the success, other than the army authority prioritising the school’s needs and its illustrious old boys giving back to their alma-mata.
According to Brigadier General Bunza, ”it is not magic that the school is looking the way it is today. When I took over the mantle of leadership, I discovered that there are a lot of challenges, most especially there are a lot of infrastructural decay in the school, which are very alarming. Of course, the first point of call is the Nigerian Army, the owners of the school. What I did was to compile all the infrastructural requirements and then forwarded the catalogue to the Nigerian army, and am pleased to tell you that the Army has greatly come to the rescue of the school.
“The Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Tukur Yusuf Buratai visited us in July last year. He went round and when he saw the level of infrastructural decay, he ordered immediate renovation of some of the structures which include the six soldiers accommodation, and Chief Clark residential accommodation, the military wing, computer room and other areas of intervention. We discovered that over the years even the beddings of the boys were actually in a very sorry state, and when we reported to the Chief of Army Staff, he gave approval and released fund for the purchase of new beddings, blankets, mosquito nets and bed sheets.
“And also, the military training was suspended, six years back, from 2011- 2016. It was when the Chief of Army Staff visited us last year that I told him the main problem, because the boys were feeling terribly bad. After the military training for six years, at the end of the day they will just go home like that, after feeling all rigours of military training. So, when I presented the case before the COAS, he inquired about the cause and gave directive for immediate resuscitation of the military training in the school and by implication, the absorption of the boys at the end of the academic years. So that was the greatest achievement I think we were able to record.
“And then equally we all know that the task before the COAS is enormous, because NMS is just one unit that he has to cater for. So, what the management of the school under my leadership did was to look for other organisations and individuals that have to do with educational development to assist the school. And my first point was Universal Basic Education, and we are hopeful since they came and set up a team to assess the needs of the school and we are still awaiting their intervention. I also approached the NCC, which also assisted the school in constructing ICT centre, equipped with 21 desktop computers, internet bouquet, generator and so many other facilities.
