The educationally disadvantaged Northern Nigeria is facing numerous challenges. The frightening one among is the rising cases of students’ abduction by the bandits.
The abduction began in Chibok, and spread to Dapchi. Many Nigerians thought, the two incidences 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 Jengebe indicated that government has not learnt any lesson.
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The growing cases of students’ abduction in the North have appeared or 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 sector by many states. For instance, the picture of Kagara school where 27 students were abducted depicted 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.
By abducting students, the bandits have succeeded in instilling fears in the mind of parents, guardians and the teachers.
Many parents will be reluctant to send their children to schools for fear of the unknown. In the wake up of the Jangebe abduction, the Zamfara State government announced the closure of all boarding schools across the state and Kano State government has followed suit by giving a directive for the closure of 10 boarding schools in the state.
The closure of the boarding schools come s at a time when corona pandemic has already wreaked 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 refused 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 but only return when ransoms are collected. It is high time government used brutal force to suppress the activities of the rampaging bandits who are threatening 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 infrastructure. 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.
There is also the need for government to rejig its intelligence agencies for effective security and policing.
Lawal Adamu Usman (MR LA), lives in Kaduna
