The educationally disadvantaged Northern Nigeria is facing numerous challenges. The frightening one among them is the rising cases of students’ abduction by the organised bandits or whatever name has been given them.
The abduction began in Chibok, spread to Dapchi. Many Nigerians thought the two incidents would serve as a wake-up call for government to improve security and secure our schools. However, the recent abduction in Kankara, Kagara and now Jangebe in which over 317 female students vanished indicated that government has not learnt any lesson. The growing cases of students’ abduction in the North come at a time when damning statistics have continued to emerge on the increasing number of out of school children and poor funding of the education sector by many states in the north. For instance, the picture of Kagara school, where 27 students were abducted, depicts the poor infrastructure in most of our public schools.
If truth must be told, the reason for the students’ abduction goes beyond ransom taking. It is deliberately and carefully arranged or carried out to discourage learning of western education in northern Nigeria as being championed by the dreaded Boko Haram. By abducting students, the bandits have succeeding in instilling fears in the mind of parents, guardian and the teachers. Many parents will be reluctant to send their children to school for fear of the unknown. In the wake of the Jangebe abduction, the Zamfara state government announced the closure of all boarding schools across the state. I also learnt, Kano state government has followed suit by giving directive for the closure of 10 boarding schools in the state. The closure of the boarding schools came at a time when coronavirus pandemic has already wrecked havoc to the education system which forced many schools to remain closed in the last one year.
Katsina and Zamfara state governors have been pushing for reconciliation with the bandits. Unfortunately, looking at how these bandits refuse to cease fire in spite of all entreaties including the one from Sheikh Gumi, one is convinced that the bandits are not ready to surrender their arms, let alone embrace amnesty being rolled out by these governors. The only language these bandits understand is killing and abduction of their helpless victims. Let government stop deceiving itself that negotiation with bandits will end banditry.
The bandits will pretend to have repented only to return after ransom is collected. It is high time government used brutal force to suppress the activities of the rampaging bandits who threaten our education sector. There is the need for northern governors to increase investment in education. Our public schools have become glorified primary schools with inadequate functional infrastructural development. Most of our boarding schools in the north are porous with little presence of security.
This provides easy access for the bandits to strike whenever the need arises. Government must ensure adequate deployment of security personnel to man our boarding schools. From how these abductors frequently visit our schools, it shows total failure of intelligence gathering agencies. There is the need for government to rejig its intelligence agencies for effective security and policing.
Lawal Adamu Usman (Mr LA),
Kaduna, Kaduna state
