Attacks on schools: Why FG must secure academic institutions to guide against education apathy in the North

The turn of attention to schools as soft targets by bandits has in recent time become troubling in Nigeria. It is apparent that the susceptibility of schools in the Northern part of the Country currently ravaged by the storms of banditry and terrorism, has become a thorn in the flesh. The antecedent of abducting school children could be traced to the foundation laid in 2014 when the mischievous Boko-Haram sect attacked a government girl’s school in Chibok and carted away girls in  scores. The inability of the government to secure the rescue of the girls without resort to some form of negotiation with the sect, which only led to the release of some of them was a bad precedent that is linkable to the present phenomenon of bandits turning to schools to kidnap students for ransom. Since it is apparently believed the government leans more to rescue by ransom than by security intelligence, the craft has become lucrative to mischievous elements who believe in making cheap money out of mischief.

Whilescathing criticisms continue to roll in from various angles, it is evident that the concern of the threats against various arms of human endeavour is conspicuous. One of the institutions of human society which is recently facing the threats of disturbances by insecurity menace is education. The targeting of schools by bandit and terrorist groups most recently has become so rife. The movement of terrorists turning to attack schools to kidnap pupils has grown from what was experienced in the kidnap of the Chibok girls in Bornu in 2014, to a troubling phenomenon by spates of attacks on schools to abduct students in their numbers. The records of rescue of some of the students after their abduction by the government, have been argued not to have been effected without payment of ransom. However, the experience of holding some children back in hostage and the loss of some others in the course of the attacks, constitute some arrows of panic sending fear down the spine of many parents, particularly in the Northern parts of the Country where this kidnap saga is taking deep root. The threats that such escapades portend against the Country cannot be underestimated, considering how the depth of illiteracy in the north has been recorded to have contributed largely to the preponderance of poverty and insecurity in itself. It has been argued that most illiterate and uneducated persons have been soft spots for recruitment into bandit and terrorist groups.

However, the poor response of security architecture to proffer safe haven to schools in threat zones of banditry and terrorism in the North has been a subject of concern. It has been argued that the fact that the political class has none of their children/wards enrolled in these schools, informs why the response to the threats against these schools have been attracting poor political will to muster the right force to keep the schools safe.

While the victims of the abduction used to be pupils in secondary schools, recent development have seen the phenomenon graduating to heightening level of kidnapping matured students of higher institution of learning.  Most   recently, bandits had attacked the Greenfield University on Tuesday,  20 April 2021, abducting a number of students and staff in Kasarami village, Chikun LGA, Kaduna State. The abduction will on record mark the fourth abduction from an academic institution in 2021, and the fifth since December 2020. The Greenfield abduction came barely five weeks and six days after the Afaka kidnapping which resulted in the abduction of 39 students.

The gruesome killings of some of victims in succession by the bandits have spiked fear and panic.   Reports had emanated last weekend of the murder of three among the kidnapped Greenfield University students who were shot dead by their abductors. The remains of the three students were reportedly discovered in Kwanan Bature village, a location close to the university.

More panic had erupted when on Monday the killing of two more of the abducted victims broke into the air.  The Commissioner, Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs in Kaduna State, confirming the killing of two more students had said: “On a sad note, security agencies have just reported to the Kaduna State Government the recovery of two more dead bodies of Greenfield University students, killed by armed bandits today, Monday 26th April 2021.  The retrieved corpses have been evacuated to a mortuary, and the university has been notified of the development.”

In condemning the recent abduction, former Kaduna Senator, Shehu Sani, had said: “The fresh report that bandits have attacked and kidnapped many students at the Greenfield University along Kaduna-Abuja road is yet another tragedy. Proprietors of schools within this axis need to read the signs. Even most of us have abandoned our farms to the care of God.” Knocks on the Federal Government over the posture of handling security matters in the Country has become rife most recently. Critical positions have assumed whipping notations against the Presidency-led Federal Government in the sight of worsening profile of security threats which have continued to project a situation of disorder across the Country.

It is essential that the Federal Government put in frontline the threat that increasing attacks on academic institutions pose on education in the Country, particularly in the North. It is widely known that the level of interest for education in the Northern part of the Country is still at a very low ebb, which does not in any way speak good fortune if further dampened by threats which may lead to a worsening loss of interest by fear of attacks on students. It is thus, important for the Federal Government to put all measures in place to heighten security formations around schools in the North to forestall further attacks which may lead to apathy drawing pupils away from schools. The rising phenomenon is largely undesirable for the depth of illiteracy and poverty records which  apparently constitute underlying factors attributable to the expanding tentacles of banditry and terrorism in the Country, particularly as pronounced in the North.