Bandit attack on schools and to abduct students and pupils and hold them hostage with demands for payment of millions of naira in ransom has reached epidemic proportions in northern Nigeria since December last year.
The latest incident was the attack on Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri in Kebbi State where four teachers and more than 100 students were abducted in broad daylight on Thursday June 17, 2021. Two students were injured and a policeman was killed during the attack. The heavily armed bandits reportedly came on motorcycles from neighbouring Rijau forest in Niger State.
Following the deployment of troops by military authorities, five students and two staff members were rescued. Two days later, Army spokesman Onyeama Nwachukwu said troops successfully rescued three more students and a teacher. The authorities admit that they received a report of bandits massing near the school, as a result of which twenty Mobile policemen were deployed to guard it until the students completed their exams. Unfortunately, the bandits were so many that they overpowered the policemen.
The Yauri abduction was preceded by the attack on Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria during which armed bandits killed one HND II student, injured another and abducted a pregnant woman, her two daughters, two lecturers and eight students. Another recent incident was the abduction of Islamiyya school children from Tegina town in Niger State. This occurred shortly after the release of students of Greenfield University in Kaduna State who spent 40 days in captivity.
Commandant General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ahmed Audi, recently said there are over 81,000 schools in the country, out of which over 62,000 are open to attacks. He said the most vulnerable schools are government-owned. A first step in securing schools would be the provision of perimeter fence. This is costly perhaps, but cheaper than the damage suffered when schools are attacked. Whatever happened to the $20 million Safe School Initiative (SSI) launched by the federal government in 2014 to “promote security and safety of schools, pupils, students, teachers, as well as facilities”?
A recent United Nations Report listed Nigeria among African countries where millions of children are missing out of education due to insecurity. Closing down boarding schools in order to avert abductions could only worsen this problem, especially in the northern states where majority of the country’s out-of-school children are. Yet, if it becomes necessary to do so region-wide or in highly vulnerable areas, government should do so because the trauma associated with students’ abductions is almost unbearable for parents, communities, government and all Nigerians.
We have another pandemic on our hands, this time of school attacks. Government, security agencies and everyone else must rise to the occasion and bring this terrible pandemic to an end.
