YET ANOTHER MASS ABDUCTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN
The authorities could do more to secure the schools, and the future of the nation
Just about four weeks to the 10th anniversary of the mass abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok, motorcycle riding gunmen last Thursday repeated the feat in Kuriga, Kaduna State, triggering an outrage. The victims of the latest attack are 287 school children, some as young as eight years old. Some staff were also seized in broad daylight at the LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga and marched into the forest. Thereafter, the aggrieved villagers pleaded with the visiting Kaduna Governor Uba Sani and security officials to ensure the release of their children in an abduction blamed on the failure of intelligence and sluggish security response.
In recent years, repeated attacks on schools have created a fear that is affecting the attitude to education across the country. Why should parents send their wards to school when there is no guarantee that they would return? Besides, when schools are under attack and students/pupils become targets, according to Manuel Fotaine, a senior UNICEF official, “not only are their lives shattered, but the future of the nation is also stolen.” Therefore, concerns repeatedly expressed by relevant stakeholders, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) over growing attacks on schoolchildren in Nigeria should be taken seriously by the federal government.
Coming shortly after more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by terrorists from an internally displaced persons camp in Borno State, a worried Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has lamented that the Kuriga incident “further underscores the fragile state of security in the nation.” Indeed, both attacks are a reminder of Nigeria’s worsening security crisis. The abduction in Chikun is one of the largest school kidnappings since Chibok in Borno State when 276 schoolgirls were seized in 2014, prompting an international outrage. The fact that students/pupils have since been routinely abducted in several other attacks on schools by gunmen seems to have normalised this most heinous crime.
Between then and now, more than 2000 students have been abducted and some of them were released only after paying handsome ransoms. Many have also died in the process. For instance, some 110 schoolgirls were abducted in Dapchi, Yobe State in 2018 while some 300 schoolboys were seized in Kankara by gunmen on motorbikes two years later in 2020. While all the boys were reportedly freed, five of the Dapchi girls did not make it back alive. In the latter controversial deal for freedom brokered by the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, a Christian girl (Leah Sharibu) was left behind reportedly on account of her faith. She is still in captivity.
Even in Kaduna State alone, at least 140 students were kidnapped by armed men from a private secondary school in 2021. The incident came months after around 20 students from a private university in Chikun’s Kasarami village were abducted by gunmen, five of whom were killed after a ransom deadline was not met. Even the earlier attack on Buni Yadi, Yobe State where about 50 students were murdered in February 2014 was designed to instill fear in the minds of children and their teachers and to discourage the parents from sending their wards to school.
Repeated attacks on schools by Boko Haram and other terror affiliates have claimed the lives of thousands of teachers while many others were displaced. The killings, abductions of staff and students and the destruction of school structures have impacted on students’ enrolment and attendance, besides creating classrooms without teachers in many northern states. 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 School 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, particularly in the north. But it is unclear how many schools have benefitted and how effective the measures are.
All indicators suggest the threat is not about to flag as many schools like Kuriga, are in rural areas, making them easy targets. The authorities must do more to stem the attack on education in Nigeria.
