School abduction as ticking time-bomb

The recent report by Amnesty International attributed the increasing spate of school abduction to the deliberate inaction on the part of the government to prevent the mass abduction of students is a damning allegation that must not be taken lightly.

In a statement released to that effect, Amnesty International’s Nigeria Director, Osai Ojigho said: “Nigeria is failing to protect vulnerable children. By refusing to respond to alerts of impending attacks on schools across the North of the country, the Nigerian authorities have failed to prevent mass abductions of thousands of school children.” This is incriminating.

According to statistics published by Amnesty, a total of 11,536 schools were closed since December 2020 due to abductions and security issues. Its report also states that “these school closures have impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year. This interruption of their learning contributes to gaps in children’s knowledge and skills and may lead to the loss of approximately $3.4 billion in these children’s lifetime earnings.” It argues that this stands the risk of further perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.

If there is anything the thriving widespread abduction of school children in the country seemed to have shown, it is the callous nature and gross insensitivity of public leadership. Only a few months ago, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan decried the increasing level of out-of-school children and was quick to state that out-of-school children constituted a security risk in Nigeria. Such hackneyed statements of problem-naming, made as if they are profound pronouncements, are indications of the routine banality carried out as statecraft.

Besides, the evil of school abduction has the dangerous consequence of multiplying the breed of destructive elements that have turned Nigeria into a gigantic human tragedy. Studies have shown that people who have nothing to lose always account for the most crimes in society. They wreak havoc without qualms, contravene the law with impunity and relish the lawlessness in anomie.

Some pundits have argued that the gradual but consistent flourishing of impunity and absence of governance in abductors’ enclaves today is a Northern Nigerian problem. It has been viewed as a Frankenstein created by an opportunistic and elitist culture of greed, aversion to the common good, prebendal politics and repugnance to collective progress, which attained an unimaginable proportion with the present administration.

Whilst this position may be true, the menace of school abductions and other criminal activities associated with elements operating in the North from Sokoto, Zamfara, and Kebbi states through Niger State to Kaduna State and the Federal Capital Territory must concern all well-meaning Nigerians. When Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai once dissected Nigeria into two countries – “… a backward, less educated and unhealthy Northern Nigeria and a developing, largely educated and healthy southern Nigeria,” he provided reasons to make people wonder if there was some sinister motive to equalise decadence and chaos to drag one part of the country down to the level of the other. It is now clear that school closures in the north resonate with the uncontrolled explosion of lawless, ill-trained and unskilled manpower in Nigeria’s urban centres, especially in the south.

The silence over school abductions is very loud, insensitive and nauseating. Nigerians are disenchanted and hopeless; allegiance to the country is waning drastically. Many have been pushed to seek other nationalities through humiliating and expensive means. Sadly, Nigeria is witnessing another wave of brain drain; a swift flight of quality human resources leaving the country to dregs who aspire to the pinnacle of political power. Nigerians are witnesses to the consequences today. But should this be the case? Must the country’s destiny be surrendered to bandit imperialism?

It is for this reason that every citizen who cares about the future of Nigeria and the future generations of Nigerians should stand up now and demand concrete actions to put an end to school abductions. As a matter of policy, the Nigerian authorities must urgently comply with the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to which it is a state party. Welfare and education of the child, especially the girl-child, is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. The government must earn the trust of the people and the respect it deserves by frontally attacking elements that are inimical to progress. They must take concrete steps to prevent the abduction of children and ensure that those suspected of criminal responsibility face justice in fair trials and rescue the hundreds of children who remain in captivity.

Nigerians must begin to smoke out enemies within that promote these lucrative industries of banditry and kidnapping. It does not matter who they are and the political influences they wield. Bandits and kidnappers do not spirit their victims out of the country; they occupy a space in the award, in a local government area of a state of this federation. They live amongst Nigerians.

As President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has onerous duty to go after the country’s politicians and powerful persons in society who are arming and sponsoring bandits and kidnappers. Given the spate of abductions, the unwillingness of security authorities to forestall successive abductions, and the bland rationalisation from political officials, vindicate the report. The government’s inaction is akin to a foreshadowing of a country that is being deliberately designed to fail. This must be stopped if the president wants to show otherwise and to bestow to Nigerians a safe and secure social and psychological space to exist in.