According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a total of 1,440 students have been abducted and 25 school attacks have taken place in Nigeria in 2021.
Since the 2014 abduction of the 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram, education in Nigeria has consistently been under threat.
Children have been abducted in schools for years with no lasting solution proposed by the government. It was gathered that more than 1,000 students have been kidnapped from schools in northern Nigeria. The first responsibility of any government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Upon the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, we thought that insecurity would be a thing of the past, but the reverse is the case.
There have been countless kidnap cases from 2015 till date. The Abuja-Kaduna train attack of this year still comes to mind.
On July 27, 2022, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration through the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) ordered the immediate closure of private schools and public institutions in Abuja over the increased security threats by bandits in Abuja and its environs.
It was also gathered that the management of Veritas University, Abuja, shut the institution over security threats in the FCT.
In a statement by the Nasarawa State Commissioner for Education in July, Hajiya Fatu Jimaita Sabo, Governor Abdullahi Sule directed the closure of secondary schools due to security breaches and threats.
Read Also: Antonio Guterres is right: Only total transformation can save failing education
There are 2.182 million internally displaced persons (IDP) in Nigeria, with 143,110 IDP camps; out of which 84 per cent are in Borno State. Nigeria has the third highest number of IDPs in Africa as of 2020. So many of these children in IDP camps are unable to have access to quality education and are prone to social vices.
Publisher of Search Inwards Magazine, Hajia Kadijat Abdullahi Iya, said the number of children with or without access to quality education in IDP camps is so alarming that there is need for an urgent action on this situation.
A student at the University of Maiduguri, Sule Borgu, lamented the poor electricity in Borno State because of insurgency and insecurity for past the two years.
He said they spend more money on fuel to enable them do their assignments and research.
The educational system is being impacted by insecurity. In the North central and Northwest, many schools are shut. Parents do not allow their children to attend school because of insecurity.
While the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike continues, this administration is still running its campaign for the general election of 2023 and will make sure that electoral materials reach the communities and schools where the election will take place, but it is unable to guarantee sec urity for Nigerians.
Sadly, there seems to be no solution to the rising number of students quitting school.
- Ohore is a postgraduate student at National Open University of Nigeria(NOUN).