Protecting our schools

Since the Chibok girls’ abductions in 2014, schools in the north have not been the same again. Schools have come under a barrage of attacks from insurgents, bandits and this trend may continue for the foreseeable future.

In the last two years, not less than 10 schools have been attacked and not less than 1000 students abducted. This is sad.

As I write this, some students are still in the hands of bandits and insurgents. I can bet my last kobo that in the next few weeks, another school will be attacked with students abducted.

The north is already grappling with the low enrollment in schools. Sadly, the chunk of the 10.5 million out-of-school children is from the north. The lowest number of female enrollment in schools is also in the north. This new trend of attacks would definitely increase these numbers.

So what’s the way out of this? Do we shut down our schools? Absolutely not. That is not even an option. But I think schools in areas where bandits are holding sway or schools in isolated areas should be completely shut down and students transferred to schools in city centers.

Again what happened to the Safe Schools Initiative? It is instructive to note that the Safe Schools Initiative launched in 2014 during the World Economic Forum on Africa by a coalition of Nigerian business leaders working with the United Nations special envoy for global education, former British prime minister Gordon Brown, and the Global Business Coalition for Education and World at School.

Basically, the idea was to ensure that students are not only safe going to school but are also provided with an environment that is conducive for learning, growth, and development devoid of fear.

Interestingly, the sum of $30 million was raised at the launch of the initiative, but years after the launch, the dream of safe schools appears more elusive as more and more schools, especially in the northern part of the country with an abysmally low literacy level, have continued to witness attacks and abduction of students.

It is safe to surmise that the Safe Schools Initiate has failed abysmally.

So why are schools easy targets? The reasons are not far-fetched. The reasons I think are twofold. First, the abduction of students will help the bandits and insurgents gain more traction and international attention. Second, the bandits believe in most cases the state or federal government will take over the negotiations which in turn means more money for them. We cannot continue like this, we need to break this vicious cycle of constant abductions.

Sadly, we are short of security agencies to protect our schools. Even if we deploy the whole policemen in Nigeria to Borno and Niger states, it will still not be enough. First, we need massive and aggressive recruitments into our security agencies. We can’t surrender our sovereignty to non-state actors. I strongly believe our security agencies have the ability and capacity to crush these bandits.

Second, we need to invest massively in technology. Getting drones or cameras to monitor all schools In the country especially in troubled areas is not too much to ask. Our schools need to be under 24 hours surveillance.

Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, political director at LEADERSHIP Newspapers, can be reached via 08061573299, 08054518774.