When the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents began their campaign of terror, bombing, killing and destruction of public buildings, one of their primary goals was to stop the teaching of Western education in the North East states. Their emergence came at a wrong time when the region was trying to bridge the widening education gap that exists between it and the South West.
Boko Haram’s destructive conspiracy theory is nothing but outright lies and propaganda, which cannot hold water. If there is anything the group wants to achieve, it is to oversee the destruction of education in northern Nigeria. Evidence abounds in the abductions of students at Chibok and Dapchi, as well as the massacre of helpless students in Buni Yadi, Yobe State.
The recent abduction of over 300 students in Kankara, Katsina State, has further supported the suspicion about the plan of the group to discourage parents from sending their children to school.
Although Nigerians are yet to know whether the abduction of Kankara students was actually carried out by bandits or Boko Haram, it is clear that the agenda of the group is to discourage western education in the North.
It is clear that whichever group carried out the abduction did so to instil fear in the minds of teachers, students and parents.
I think it is time our northern governors and other stakeholders confronted these challenges with all the seriousness it deserves.
Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua wrote from Kaduna State.
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