by Mboho Eno
Nigeria has continued to witness a tremendous setback in its socio-economic development fueled by the continuous resurgence of security threats – particularly armed banditry, kidnapping and insurgency – which poses serious threats to the country’s national security and causing setbacks to the country’s meager efforts at educating its children.
Over the years, there have been different reports of school children being abduction from different states in northern Nigeria.
On December 11, 2020, 300 boys were kidnapped from Government Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State.
In Zamfara, hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary school Jangebe in February 2021.
On February 17, 2021, 27 students were abducted from Government Science Secondary School in Kagara, Niger state.
Osai Ojigho, a human rights activist and Director Amnesty International Nigeria said measures taken by the Nigerian government to bring an end to the abductions of schools’ children seem inactive.
“The Nigerian authorities’ failure to protect school-children from recent attacks clearly shows that no lessons have been learned from the Chibok tragedy. The authorities’ only response to school-children being targeted by insurgents and gunmen is to close schools, which is increasingly putting the right to education at risk,” Ms. Ojigho said.
“Between December 2020 and March 2021, there have been at least five reported cases of abductions in northern Nigeria. The threat of further attacks has led to the closure of about 600 schools in the region. Whatever authorities are doing to tame this tide, it is not working,” she added.
According to the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center report in 2014, the four explanatory factors behind the insurgency in Nigeria are; economic marginalization, governance failures, extremist operations and security failures.
Thousands of people have been killed, injured, displaced and abducted from January 2019 till date in the North-western states of Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna leading to the loss of lives and livelihoods.
Education deprivation in the North-West region has worsened as a result of the activities of armed bandits due to mass displacements in affected communities and the escalation of banditry contributed to a high number of out-of-school children in the region. This is accentuated by the reports a few days ago that the Kaduna state government has postponed school resumption until further notice.
According to an estimate by The United Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 10.5 million children between 5 to 14 are out of school in Nigeria. Only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education. In the north of the country, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 percent.
The 2011 World Bank Development Report found that people in fragile and conflict-affected states are more than three times as likely to be unable to send their children to school as those in other developing countries.
What Data Says
A news articles compilation shows that between 2014 and June 2021, about 1532 students have been kidnapped across the northern region states. Of 1532 kidnapped, 881 have been released with over 9 mortalities and about 332 yet to be released.
A report by Global Citizen showed that more than 600 schools have been shut down due to security concerns and At least 1,000 children have been kidnapped by armed men since December 2020. Nine have been reported to be killed and over 200 missing.
Amina Ishaya, a mother to one of the kidnap victims in Kaduna said she has made her children quit school after the kidnap incident of one of them.
“For me, I can’t let my daughter return back to school after what has happened. It is better for her to be an illiterate and be alive for me than go to school and die. Her younger ones who are still small, I even refused to allow them to attend school in Kaduna until I relocated to Abba where their father is.” Mrs Ishaya said
In an interview with Jemimah Badmus, one of the kidnap victims in Kaduna state she indicated her willingness to return back to school despite her ordeal.
“Personally, to experience such and still be alive is enough reason to carry on with my life. It is a general situation, but after everything, it’s better to finish what I have started. People have gone through worse,’’ Miss Badmus said.
According to her, to make education enjoyable in Nigeria, the government should provide more and efficient security in schools. Education, she said, is faced with so many challenges in Nigeria and she has accepted it as a challenge that needs the intervention of the creator.
“Kidnapping aside, education faces other threats which many students face everyday life, nothing is really worth anything especially risking your life so I just consider it one challenge that with the help of God, I overcame,” She added.
Amnesty international interviewed parents of kidnapped victims who said the government cannot be trusted as they are not making efforts for their wards to return to school.
“The schools are not safe. The government is not trustworthy, and we do not believe them when they say that they would protect our children,” one parent said.
“Some of our children are about to write exams but they cannot continue because the schools are closed, yet the government is doing nothing to ensure that our children return to school,” another parent said.
This report is Supported by the PremiumTimes’ Centre for Investigative Journalism with funding from Free Press Unlimited.
