THE ABDUCTION OF VARSITY STUDENTS  

The authorities should do more to safeguard students

The killings, abductions of staff and students as well as the wanton destruction of school structures have impacted negatively on education, especially in many northern states. While many secondary schools have in recent years been target of these criminal gangs, that they would carry their dastardly operation to a tertiary institution is why the authorities should be concerned. On 22 September, according to the police, suspected bandits, riding on motorcycles, armed with sophisticated weapons invaded three students’ rented apartments in Sabon Gida Village near the Federal University Gusau and kidnapped an unspecified number of students.  

Unfortunately, at a time when Zamfara officials and their federal counterparts should be working together to secure the release of the students, they are engaging in war of words. Yet, the governor of Zamfara State must understand that incidents like this explain why many parents would rather keep their children out of school. “Attacks on education create a ripple effect and set in motion a range of negative impacts,” according to the Chief Executive of Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Josiah Ajiboye, “such as loss of education, early marriage, early pregnancy, and stigma associated with sexual violence and children born from rape, all of which can dramatically affect female students’ futures.” Indeed, Manuel Fotaine, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) director for Emergency Programmes has long noted that when schools are under repeated attacks and students become targets “not only are their lives shattered, but the future of the nation is also stolen.”   

 It all started with the 25^th February 2014 brutal attacks on Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State. It was designed to instill fear in the minds of children and their teachers and to discourage the parents from sending their wards to school. On that tragic night, no fewer than 51 students were murdered. Attacks on other schools were to follow across many states. Thousands of boys and girls abducted from several schools, particularly at the peak of the conflict, were used as suicide bombers, while the girls were also subjected to all kinds of indignities, including forced “marriages” and sexual violence.   

   In 2018, some criminal gangs abducted 108 schoolgirls from Dapchi before most were eventually returned after a controversial deal in which a Christian girl (Leah Sharibu) was left behind reportedly on account of her faith. In 2019, gunmen killed three people at the College of Agriculture and Animal Science in Bakura, Zamfara State, and kidnapped 15 students and four staff. In December 2020, motorbike-riding bandits attacked Government Secondary School, Kankara in Katsina State to ferry away about 300 students. Some weeks later, they also snatched pupils and a teacher of an Islamic seminary heading home after school in the same state. In February 2021, a school pupil was killed, and 27 others were abducted by armed men from their school in Kagara, Niger State.    

The spate of violence has prompted many to look out for ways of safeguarding students and teachers from physical threats and generally making the schools safe for study. The Safe Schools Initiative launched in 2014 after the Chibok kidnap was meant to counter the growing attacks on the right to education and to build community security groups to promote safe zones for education, consisting of teachers, parents, police, and community leaders. Endorsed by the federal government in May 2015, the Safe School Initiative, with the support of national and international organisations, has developed several measures to rebuild schools and provide improved security for schools. Now that these criminal gangs are targeting universities in the North, critical stakeholders must find workable solution to deal with the challenge.