Last week’s abduction by bandits of students of Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State is the latest chapter in the reprehensible attacks on innocent children and the educational system in northern Nigeria. While U.K.
According to press reports, armed groups have repeatedly attacked schools and universities in North-West Nigeria in the last few months, abducting more than 700 students for ransom since December 2020. The Northern part of the country is already the most educationally disadvantaged region, going by available statistics, including incredibly low cut off marks for entrance into unity schools and the JAMB admission requirements. The insecurity in the area will further depress educational standards and interest. It is on record that of the estimated 10.5 million out-of-school children in the country, 69 per cent come from the North.
Secondly, parents who value education and send their children to schools may withdraw them out of fear of the safety of these children. Most parents will protect rather than risk their children at the altar of receiving Western education. This will lead to the decline in the number of children of school age attending schools in the North and inadvertently play to the doctrine and philosophy of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists.
Bandits operate in rural communities where a lack of deterrence creates the opportunity for criminal activities. Moreover, most communities where the bandits operate have little or no government presence, with households separated by and interspersed with forest areas, rendering them vulnerable to banditry. The situation is made worse by the absence of efficient community policing mechanisms capable of addressing the hinterlands’ peculiar security challenges.
What is instead needed is a comprehensive policy that would keep our schools safe from bandits. The government needs a re-evaluation, revamping and expansion of the Safe Schools Initiative, or creating a more responsive intervention. The Safe Schools Initiative was launched after the abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram in 2014.
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