She is a grandmother, but authorities tracking the remaining members of the Nigerian Taliban after crushing the sect’s uprising a year ago may have reason for concern.
The 48-year-old whose son was among the sect members killed in the fighting said she will teach his six children left behind to follow in his footsteps.
“We may retreat but we will not surrender,” she told AFP outside her house in Maiduguri, the northern city at the centre of the uprising.
“There are a lot of children like them and we will drill in them how their fathers were cut down in their prime by Nigerian security forces,” she said, clad in a black veil revealing only her face.
A year after authorities put down the Islamist sect’s uprising in northern Nigeria and killed its leader, some observers say there is a danger that the children of sect members could grow up to replenish its ranks.
Abubakar Tsav, a respected former police commissioner for Lagos who now lives in the country’s mainly Muslim north, said Boko Haram, as the sect is also known, may rise again for that reason.
“The government may seem to have clamped on Boko Haram, but the real menace may be years away as the sect is now engaged in indoctrinating the children of its members, particularly of those killed during last year’s violence,” Tsav told AFP.
Troops crushed the uprising after four days of fighting that killed more than 800 people. Sect leader Mohammed Yusuf was shot on July 30 last year by police, who said he was trying to escape hours after his capture.
As the one-year anniversary approached, tension gripped Maiduguri following rumours the sect was planning to strike again, leading to the deployment of police reinforcements from neighbouring states and intelligence personnel.
There have been no incidents so far and apprehension among residents seems to have dissipated.
But some say a new generation of holy warriors may be developing.
“We have the fear that the real problem may not be now, but in years to come, when the children of Boko Haram militants come of age,” said Shehu Sani of the Civil Rights Congress rights group based in the northern city of Kaduna.
Sani believes the insurgent group has not been completely stamped out, with many of its militant members having gone underground, “making the Boko Haram an unfinished business.”
“One can imagine the type of human beings these children will turn out to be, having been trained to only hate, fight and kill in the name of religion right from their formative years,” Sani said.
He said that if the government failed to integrate Boko Haram children into society, they “will certainly pick up from where their parents had fallen and continue with the insurgency with more vigour, ferocity and dedication.”
The government in Borno state, where Maiduguri is located, has outlawed the sect.
“Despite the risk, we are determined to continue with our struggle and our children are following our footsteps by teaching them to be mujahideen (Islamic fighters),” Yerima Faltaye, a 32-year old perfume vendor and sect member told AFP.