Educational insecurities

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Nowadays, many children cannot attend school because of the fear of Boko Haram.Even when children enrol in schools, many do not complete the primary cycle. According to current data, 30 per cent of pupils drop out of primary school and only 54 per cent transit to junior secondary schools. Reasons for this low completion rate include child labour, economic hardship, early marriage for girls, and lately, Boko Haram insurgency.
Despite political commitment to reverse years of neglect in the country’s education sector, investment in basic education is still low compared to other Sub-Saharan countries.Apart from the abduction of the Chibok and Dapchi schoolgirls in Borno and Yobe respectively, schoolchildren in Lagos State have often been favourite and soft targets of militants.
On February 29, 2016, Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, a school on the outskirts of Lagos was thrown into pandemonium when some schoolchildren were abducted.It was around 8 pm when pupils of the school were busy studying for their upcoming examinations that a gang of 12 armed men struck and kidnapped three schoolgirls. They would later demand for a ransom to release the girls. But in about one week, some of the kidnappers were apprehended and the girls were rescued.It was, however, learnt that was not the first time the school would be threatened by the kidnappers. Some time earlier, the wall of the school had been breached and a pupil abducted.One of the apprehended gunmen said that the group had previously attempted a kidnap in that same school but were unsuccessful when the girl they abducted managed to escape.Few months later, precisely October 6, 2016, at 7:30 am, some armed men stormed Igbonla Model College in Epe and kidnapped the school’s vice principal, a teacher and four pupils, during the school’s general assembly morning devotion.

Are these abductions happenstances?
A United States of America-trained security expert, Tanwa Ashiru, does not think so.“These successful kidnaps reveal that school (children) kidnaps are fast becoming a trend and a major threat. It is pivotal that the government collaborates with schools to increase policing and protective measures, so as to be better prepared in case of any future attacks. Residences, estates, workplaces located near the waterways or surrounded by heavy forestation are particularly susceptible to these abductions,” Ashiru said in her online post.
According to her, the increasing kidnapping rate both in Lagos and across the country can be viewed as a law enforcement failure, as security operatives have failed to send out a forceful message on the repercussion of such crimes.On January 13, 2017, pupils of the Nigerian Tulip International College (formerly Nigerian Turkish International College), Isheri, Ogun State, was the next school to be attacked by armed kidnappers.Isheri is a border town of Ogun State close to Lagos with waters surrounding the environs.Through its waters, the gang of kidnappers dug a hole through the school’s fence and gained entry from the back of the NTIC. Upon entry, they fired shots into the air and took away three pupils and five employees of the institution.Oftentimes, kidnapping cases along the waterways are associated with “Ijaw militants” who use speedboats and are adept at navigating the waters. Kidnapping in Lagos is said to persist because the Nigeria Police do not have any counter-kidnapping strategy.Hard hit by the kidnap menace in its domain, the Lagos State House of Assembly had passed a bill that is expected to curtail the rising cases of the menace. Kidnapping now attracts a death penalty.Although passing the bill can be seen as government taking a step in the right direction of tackling kidnapping, a more holistic approach involving tackling socio-economic factors facilitating kidnapping is required to completely eliminate this security threat. Until these aforementioned underlying factors are resolved by the government, the issue of kidnapping will continue to remain one of the biggest security challenges in Nigeria,” Ashiru noted.With the latest kidnap of Dapchi schoolgirls, sending children to school in the north will be seen by many parents as walking a tight rope.
SAY NO TO EDUCATIONAL INSECURITIES