{"id":4569,"date":"2015-10-31T13:46:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T18:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brethren.org\/?p=4569"},"modified":"2015-10-31T13:46:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T18:46:21","slug":"completing-a-degree-during-troubled-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/2015\/10\/31\/completing-a-degree-during-troubled-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Completing a Degree During Troubled Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tby Janet Crago<\/p>\n

\"Zakariya<\/a>
Zakariya Musa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2014, Zakariya Musa was pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication at the University of Maiduguri.\u00a0 It was supposed to be a 6-year journey.\u00a0 He works for EYN Headquarters as the Editor of Sabon Haske,<\/u> which is an EYN publication reporting on major events in EYN.\u00a0 The University of Maiduguri offered a program where he could travel to Maiduguri to attend classes on Friday evening and all day Saturday.\u00a0 He would travel earlier in the day on Friday to get to Maiduguri for the Friday classes, then travel on Sunday to get back to EYN Headquarters at Kwarhi.\u00a0 He was given study assignments to work on during the two weeks he would spend at EYN Headquarters before again returning to Maiduguri for the Fri – Sat classes, then back to Kwarhi again.\u00a0 Zakariya would work at EYN Headquarters during the day, and study at night.\u00a0 He has 8 children, so to get a quiet place to study, he would frequently go to the Library or the classrooms at Kulp Bible College (KBC) at night to study.\u00a0 It was a very busy life.\u00a0 But, this was a schedule he expected — before the Boko Haram insurgency geared up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maiduguri is a very large city north of EYN Headquarters.\u00a0 If you travel on the road that goes north and is the shortest route, it takes about 4 hours.\u00a0 Soon, however, it became unsafe to travel the shortest road up to Maiduguri.\u00a0 Even today, because of the insurgency, it is not safe to pass on the road through Bama \/ Gwoza.\u00a0 Instead, travelers leaving Kwarhi must first travel to Yola which is about 4 hours SOUTH of EYN Headquarters.\u00a0 Then you have to travel from Yola to Numan, Adamawa state \/to Gombe, Gombe state\/ to Damaturu, Yobe State\/to Maiduguri, Borno State, a further trip of approximately 10 hours through 3 state capitals.\u00a0 So, total trip time now become 14 hours one way.\u00a0 Getting his degree became very difficult as Zakariya continued to pursue it.\u00a0 Not only did the travel time increase so much that it became almost impossible, but the trip is not even very safe in some places like Damaturu.\u00a0 Another problem was that the city of Maiduguri imposed a curfew during this time to help ensure the safety of the city.\u00a0 Zakariya\u2019s probem was that they kept changing the time.\u00a0 Sometimes it was 5 pm to 6 am, sometimes it was 6 pm to 7 am, and sometimes it was 7 pm to 7 am.\u00a0 Zakariya always called ahead to determine the time so he didn\u2019t have to stay in the bush.\u00a0 He had to stay over night in Yola several times.\u00a0\u00a0 But, Zakariya still persevered toward his degree.<\/p>\n

Then, to make matters worse, Boko Haram began an all-out effort to carve out a radical Islamic state in a section of northeast Nigeria.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t having success in overcoming Maiduguri itself so their eyes moved toward its surroundings with a bomb blast here and there within the city despite the heavy military checkpoints at all road linkages. They began a march south, overrunning Bama, Gwoza, Madagali and Michika in mid September, moving into KBC on Oct 29 and overrunning Mubi on Oct 30.\u00a0 People were anxious all over the area, but didn\u2019t want to abandon their homes and crops.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want to run away until they had no other choice.<\/p>\n

But, Oct 29th<\/sup> was that day for Zakariya\u2019s family, who lived in Kwarhi near the EYN Headquarters.\u00a0 His older children abandoned their house early in the morning of Oct 29th<\/sup> by starting their trek, on foot, toward Gashala, then Hong, then Gombi, before getting transport to Yola.\u00a0 Unfortunately, Zakariya\u2019s wife didn\u2019t leave soon enough.\u00a0 She got trapped in her home in Kwarhi.\u00a0 Thankfully, she was able to sneak out later in the day.\u00a0 She went through the bush to Gashala, then Hong.\u00a0 She trekked about 15 miles before spending the night in Gashala.\u00a0 She and her group (which included a pregnant woman who was in her eighth month) were finally able to get transport from Hong to Yola.\u00a0 That same day, Zakariya had made the long journey back from Maiduguri and arrived in Yola the evening of Oct 29th<\/sup>.\u00a0 His wife arrived on the 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

The pastor and parishioners of the Vinikilang EYN church, just outside Yola, were allowing displaced people to gather in a large open area near their church.\u00a0 Zakariya estimates that there were about 400 adults staying in this open area.\u00a0 Sometimes they were able to get one plate of food for the younger children.\u00a0 He had very little money with him, but was able to purchase a little food for the rest of them.\u00a0 They stayed there for 6 days.\u00a0 Ultimately, the displaced people there dispersed to many areas, wherever they could get a safe place to stay until they could return home.\u00a0 After discussing their options, Zakariya\u2019s family decided to move to a refugee camp in Bukuru (near Jos) run by the Stephanos Foundation.\u00a0 There they stayed in a shelter which only had half walls.\u00a0 They decided to hang cloth around the open top half so they could have a little privacy.<\/p>\n

Then, Zakariya got word from his university supervisors that he needed to finish his final project as his allotted time had almost expired.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know how he was going to finish his project while living in a camp.\u00a0 There was no private area to work in.\u00a0 His advisor agreed to communicate with him about his project through email.\u00a0 He had a laptop, but how was he going to power it?\u00a0 Well, Zakariya is resourceful, and again he pulled off the almost impossible.\u00a0 He finished his project on time and was able to complete his Bachelor of Science Degree.\u00a0 But, the story doesn\u2019t end there —<\/p>\n

\"Zakariya<\/a>
Zakariya with his wife and Carl & Roxane Hill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While working on his final project he got word from Gavva that his parents had been killedby the insurgents.\u00a0 Gavva is one of the villages in northeast Nigeria very close to the Cameroon border where people are still afraid to go back because they are likely to be killed.\u00a0 Then, he then got word that his mother had been seen alive.\u00a0 But — he has now not heard from his mother for over 6 months, and he\u2019s doubtful that this is really true. His father and mother lived in Gavva their whole lives, and Zakariya grew up there.\u00a0 The death of his parents has been a terrible blow for him.<\/p>\n

Zakariya thanks God for getting him through the difficult challenges of getting his degree.\u00a0 He is also grateful to Stephanos Foundation for helping to provide for his family during a time when he\u2019s also mourned for his parents and the other colleagues he has lost to the Boko Haram conflict.<\/p>\n

When he reflects on what has happened to him he says he appreciates people, particularly in Jos, for their concern for EYN.\u00a0 His prayer is for peace to come back to Nigeria, especially in the northeast where the insurgency has taken over.\u00a0 He prays for God to give EYN a forgiving heart because we have all sinned before God.\u00a0 He prays for the new government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and for the betterment of all citizens.<\/p>\n

 \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Janet Crago In 2014, Zakariya Musa was pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication at the University of Maiduguri.\u00a0 It was supposed to be a 6-year journey.\u00a0 He works for EYN Headquarters as the Editor of Sabon Haske, which is an EYN publication reporting on major events in EYN.\u00a0 The University of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[139,365,370,419,813,814,882],"class_list":["post-4569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nigeria","tag-boko-haram","tag-education","tag-ekklesiyar-yanuwa-a-nigeria","tag-eyn","tag-nigeria","tag-nigeria-crisis","tag-peace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/blogtest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}