While many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) his age who were forced to stop their schooling due to the activities of Boko Haram might have lost hope in life, 15-year-old Sadiq Mala still hopes to continue his education until he becomes a mechanical engineer. Unlike others, he wakes up daily to gather cartons, plastic, and scrap metal to make prototypes of an airplane or an automobile.
In a report by the Punch Newspaper, it was gathered that Sadiq is an IDP from Auno in the Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State who was forced to leave primary school but managed to finish in Maiduguri metropolis. However, he couldn’t enroll in a secondary school because his mother couldn’t afford the pittances demanded in secondary schools, despite the fact that secondary schooling is free in the state.
Speaking about his ordeal, Sadiq said, “When the insurgents chased us out of home in 2014, I was already completing primary three.”
“I completed my primary schooling at Lamisula Primary School in Maiduguri in 2021.”
Further speaking, he said, “One night in 2021, I dreamt of inventing a train in my sleep; I woke up and jubilantly told my mother about it; her face exuded a mixture of unbelief and gladness.”
“Unbelief because she could not imagine me inventing automobiles when I was just a primary school leaver without any foreseeable hope of getting to the university or any other higher institution to develop my talent and acquire the skills to do so.”
He also disclosed that he usually buys some of the material he uses for his prototype automobiles, noting that when he hawks sachet water, he gives his mother half and uses the rest to purchase these materials.
Source: Punch Newspaper.
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