ON the 14th of April 2014, 276 students were abducted from the Chibok high school in Bornu state. Though some escaped while a few others were rescued, dozens are still unaccounted for eight long years after the abduction. There are no serious updates on the progress that the has been made for their rescue. Neither is there information about how the government has rehabilitated their traumatized parents a few of who had reportedly died of heartbreak.
On February 25th 2014, about fifty-nine students of Federal Government College Buni Yadi, Yobe state were killed in their dormitory. Not much has been heard about what the parents received from government either in terms of psychological support, therapy or otherwise.
On February 19, 2018, 110 school girls aged 11-19 were abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists from the government Girls’ Science and Technical School Dapchi in Bulabulin, Bursari local government area of Yobe state. All but Leah Shaibu, were reportedly released but there are no concrete news about Leah, now the face of school abductions in Nigeria. There are unconfirmed stories about her having been forcefully married and impregnated and her faith changed.
On 26th February 2021, 279 students of Government Girls secondary School Jangebe in Zamfara state were abducted from their school. On September, 13th 2021, 75 students were kidnapped from Government Day Secondary school Kaya, Maradun local government area of Zamfara state. They reportedly later regained their freedom.
On June 17th 2021, 80 students and five teachers of federal government college Birnin Yauri were abducted. Since then, there have been piecemeal rescues by the military and releases by the abductors. However, there are about eleven girls still being held by the abductors and with reports of an alleged marriage of thirteen of the girls.
Recently, the parents of the remaining eleven female students now referred to as the Yauri 11 have cried out in frustration because the abductors are demanding a 100million naira as ransom and the alreadt exhausted parents are resorting to selling off their properties and crowd-funding to raise the needed funds to secure the release of their children.
These are just a few of the school abductions in the last few years that have dire consequences for the education system in Nigeria. For a country with one of the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, these school abductions say a lot about the value the country places on not just education but the education of the girl child especially in the Northern part of Nigeria with very low literacy rate.
The Roundtable Conversation is worried that none of the Presidential candidates in Nigeria seems to recognize the very dire consequences of targeted abduction of students especially girls from schools. In most of the town halls and other organized meetings and campaigns, none of the candidates makes any reference to those forgotten students in captivity when they discuss their programme for education. It is not enough to mention improvement in education and the ending of strikes by the Academic Staff union of Universities (ASUU).
The Roundtable Conversation sees it as a strategic flaw that the candidates seem not to be very aware of the enormity of the attacks on schools targeted at preventing the girl child from being educated. The United Nations and other global institutions have always emphasized the dangers inherent in any nation that does not prioritize the education of the children. It is even worse when a nation is forced through the Boko Haram antics of discouraging western education to fail to secure the school environment as hundreds of students at all tiers of education, primary, secondary and tertiary education get abducted repeatedly.
If according to UNICEF and UNESCO statistics millions of Nigerian children are out of school and there are increasing numbers of school abductions, then the bottomline is that insecurity scare is the easiest way to disenfranchise parents from sending their children to school. The prognosis is dire for the future of the country where the girl-child is surreptitiously locked out of the classroom.
The implication of an illiterate girl-child growing into an illiterate woman or mother is that the future of her children is endangered and tied to her own poor life. If the saying is that when you educate a woman you educate a nation is factual, then it logically follows that when you do not educate a woman, you have an illiterate population in a world where technology and intellectual content rule.
The Roundtable Conversation had expected that presidential candidates and their political parties in this campaign period would touch on the vice that is the abduction of school children across the land especially the female students who are largely sexually violated and made premature mothers for those who are able to survive the pregnancy and la bour/delivery complications. Most of the child-brides either die, are maimed or develop the dreaded Visco Vaginal Fistula (VVF) a very debilitating outcome of obstructed labour and which often ruins the lives of many who are often abandoned by the same husbands that stole their innocence.
Illiteracy amongst child-brides comes with multiple births and the attendant complications like child mortality, malnourishment, stunted growth and lack of general healthy development and nurturing that brings out the best in a child. The high maternal and child mortality rates in the Northern part of the country are traceable to a highly illiterate female population who do not have the knowledge about simple nutrition and reproductive health.
The Roundtable Conversation feels that our politicians must be held accountable before, during and after elections and that has to be about every candidate. There is sense in which Nigerians tend to only focus on the presidency thereby giving governors and legislators at all levels a free pass. With all the school abductions in the last ten years, possibly less than 5% of the elected governors and legislators in those states and constituencies have intervened in any measurable level in either seeking the rescue of the abductees or even providing any sort of succor to their families.
If democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, the Roundtable Conversation feels that evaluated critically, most politicians in Nigeria seem not to truly care for the people. There seems to be a wide gulf between the people and those paid to serve them. We expected that the hapless students held in captivity for years and months ought to be at the focal point of campaigns but sadly, there is a loud silence as most candidates just regurgitate the regular rhetoric about the education sector.
No nation can develop without the education and health sectors getting priority attention. A 20million+ out-of-school children is too scary for the future of Nigeria and if school abductions are unaddressed with the urgency it deserves, the number will skyrocket in years to come and Nigeria’s future generation might not fit into the modern 21st century and beyond.
The Yauri 11 whose parents have resorted to selling even the houses they live in to raise the 100million naira ransom have complained that governments at all levels have not come to their aid in an attempt to seek the release of those 11 students aged between 12-16. The question is, do the different candidates understand that the parents do not know its election time because they are too distraught because their children are in captivity?
The main role of government is the protection of lives and property, even though there is general insecurity across the nation, the school abductions must get priority attention given how vulnerable children are. We would not want to be seen as a nation whose children’s future are obstructed by insurgents. The much touted Safe Schools Initiatives with all the counterpart funding from the UN and other organizations must be made to function optimally so that our children, our future can embrace education in its fullness without fear of any form of abductions.
The Roundtable Conversations has been following very keenly the campaign trails of most of the candidates at all levels and we want to see a more robust and realistic focus on school safety and the protection of the girl-child. We acknowledge that both boys and girls and even adults like teachers have been victims of abductions but girls seem to be more in number and suffer the collateral damages like rape and pregnancies.
Political economists across the world have continuously maintained that countries where women are least empowered are always at the bottom rung of development. The 133million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty are mostly women who if empowered by the system can be productive in ways that can boost the nation’s GDP. According to a financial analyst, Betty Wilkinson, Nigeria can do better to improve the gender equity that can empower women being that a huge percentage of small and medium scale industries that boosts economies are controlled by women. She sees the 1% budgetary allocation to women related empowerment issues by the government is too abysmal.
Candidates must go beyond persuading women to vote at elections to protecting girls who eventually grow, if protected to become women who beyond voting would be qualified to seek to be voted for in a Nigeria with one of the lowest gender inclusive ratios in politics. Women candidates across party lines for the 2023 elections are at less than 11%. The dynamics must change and that must start from the cradle through school to adulthood.
The dialogue continues…
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