SCHOOL ABDUCTIONS AND 13.5 MILLION OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN NIGERIA
Hundreds of schools have been closed in the northern part of Nigeria. There is an increase in out of school children that have not reflected in Nigeria’s data in 2021. The number of out of school children is increasing this year. 13.5 out of school children could double if adequate steps are not taken to stop school abductions in Nigeria. Schools in north-west and north-central are being closed due to several school abductions in Nigeria in 2021. Nigeria has one of world’s highest numbers of out-of-school children, 13.5 million, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A wave of school kidnappings has worsened the situation, with some state authorities closing down boarding schools in their states until security is guaranteed.
The most recent attacks on schools in Nigeria came recently, when gunmen abducted 279 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in north-western Zamfara state. A week before then, some 42 people including 27 schoolboys were kidnapped in a school in Kagara, in central Niger state. At a time when the pandemic is rife, and some parents have withdrawn their children from school, or have not sent their children back to school, the insecurity and threats to educational facilities can only compound an already difficult situation,” Since the recent wave of kidnappings by criminal gangs demanding ransom, many state authorities, including those in Kano, Yobe, Niger, and Zamfara, have ordered the closure of boarding schools.
Most of the affected children can be found in the crisis-hit north of the country. Many accuse the government of being insensitive to the dangers there. President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to bolster security around schools, while adding that security forces will continue to apply restraint when dealing with bandits to avoid children being used as human shields.
As schools become targets of bandits in north-west, north-central and north-east Nigeria, children are living and working on the streets — and the government isn’t doing much to protect them. The unceasing conflict in north-east and north-west has destroyed the institutions meant to protect children. Nearly half of the children aged between 7 and 14 years old in northeast and north-west are missing out on school.
Generations of children have paid the price in northeast, north-west and north-central that has not been at peace since 2013.There was widespread violence as a leading reason for children not attending school. Northeast remains in crisis between conflict and recovery, and despite millions of dollars being pumped into globally funded reconstruction efforts, protection for children — whether those attending school, working on streets or in factories, and others confined to their homes because of insecurity — remains precarious and their future prospects threadbare.
Nigeria needs to take leap to bring more children into education and into learning. Partnerships and collective actions are essential. I must explain that in the North-east and North-west states of Nigeria, more than half of primary school aged girls are not in school. “There are several reasons why these children are not in school. Gender is an important factor in the pattern of educational marginalisation.
The so-called Islamic State collapsed in Syria, Iraq and Libya, it is losing territory and they are using West Africa as their recruiting ground. Its ambitions of a global caliphate are unrealised. But perhaps this was predicted, even anticipated. First came the grooming, then the recruitment and training to create a new army of child jihadists, who might grow into adult militants. The Islamic State’s and Boko Haram are next generation of hate in West Africa.
As children are immersed in this public violence in northeast and north-west, they are also targeted by ISIS and Boko Haram members who lure them with various techniques. Sometimes they make parties for children, so if you answer the right question they will give you a present or a mobile phone. They recruit a lot of young boys” this way mostly those that are out of school, ISIS and Boko Haram send some of its child recruits to military camps to train them in how to handle weapons and fight. Militants provide an incentive to poor families by offering to pay parents hundreds of dollars per month for each child they send, and some of the children Being Slaughtered Silently. ISIS calls these children, who have been featured in many ISIS propaganda releases, “Cubs of the Caliphate.
Boko Haram and ISIS could target 13.5 million out of school children specifically, aiming to create a generation of loyal followers who are indoctrinated from an early age and therefore might be less likely to dissent. It’s an issue that worries experts like me. It is instilling very young children with Islamism, jihadism, and it’s something that’s going to stick around for a long, long time. Boko Haram and ISIS target children because it’s easier to recruit them than adult men.
The Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) should not be allowed to recruit 13.5 million Out of school children in Nigeria who could serve as breeding criminals for kidnapping and armed robbery. The insurgents are desperate to overrun northeast Nigeria and render the government weak to respond to their criminal tendencies that had kept that part of Nigeria under their control. Since the merger with ISIS, Boko Haram has developed into a desperate monster, devouring its victims and inflicting pains in people and government of Nigeria. The group has changed tactics from attacking mosques, markets, public buildings and barracks to abduction of defenseless people.
I want to beg the federal government, state governments and local governments to work hard so that the 13.5 million out of school children are not recruited into Boko Haram, armed robbers or enlisted them into kidnapping gangs. In the 21st century, we cannot afford to produce 13.5 million jihadists, kidnappers and armed robbers. Let us work hard to eliminate out of school children in Nigeria.
69% of the out of school children in the north could be classified as “vulnerable “and exposed to the jihadists and threatened by various terror organizations. Majority of the children could be recruited into Boko Haram terror group. The situation is that an entire generation of children in the northeast is being robbed of their right to education, an essential ingredient for their future and for the development of the northeast region, which for years has lagged behind that of other parts of the country. Without urgent action to address the lack of access to education occasioned by the Boko Haram attacks, the lives of these children could become locked in unending cycles of underachievement and poverty. Boko Haram is also a kidnapping group today. Boko Haram has kidnapped some of these out of school children and recruits them into the terror group.
Inwalomhe Donald writes from Benin City, inwalomhe.donald@yahoo.com
