It is commendable that the federal government has rescued the 137 schoolchildren recently abducted from Kuriga, Kaduna State. According to the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), the feat was attained through coordinated search and rescue operation conducted by the military in collaboration with local authorities and government agencies in Zamfara State.
The students and their teachers, who were released on March 23, were abducted on March 7. The rescue has attracted diverse comments, including the controversy on the actual number of students involved. Initial reports put the figure at 287 students, including their principal, while Kaduna State government insisted that they were 137 in number. Their actual number notwithstanding, what is important is that 137 were rescued.
A total of 137 persons comprising 76 females and 61 males were rescued in Zamfara, according to the Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba. Unfortunately, one of the teachers kidnapped along with the students died in captivity. Earlier, 16 pupils and a woman were rescued by troops on March 21 in Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
We applaud President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the prompt rescue of the students and urge him to deploy similar resources to rescue other Nigerians being held captive by bandits and other criminals across the country, including some of the prospective corps members from Akwa Ibom State kidnapped in Zamfara State on their way to Sokoto State. The case of the abducted corps members deserves serious attention from the federal government. The abduction of the Kuriga students brings to mind similar incidents in Chibok, Borno, Dapchi, Yobe, Kankara, Katsina State and other parts of the country. They underscore the worrisome dimensions of insecurity in the country.
Since April 2014, when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from a government secondary school in Chibok, Borno State; to February 19, 2018, when 110 students were abducted from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State and December 11, 2020, when over 300 pupils were kidnapped from a boys’ secondary boarding school in Kankara, Katsina State, to the Kaduna episode, schools have become targets for such attacks.
The attack on schools will lead to increase in the number of out-of-school children in the country if nothing is done now to promote safe school initiative and check the menace. The government must ensure the right to education of every Nigerian child. The present insecurity and abduction of school children must not be allowed to vitiate this right. The unbridled abduction of school children will discourage schooling, especially in the North, which is educationally disadvantaged.
With the recurrent abduction of school children, the out-of-school children figure in the country will increase. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had stated that one in three children in Nigeria was out of school, totalling 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) level. Out of the figure, the North has the highest number. Having such a high number of children outside the school system portends a great danger to the country.
The rising insecurity hampers the economy and discourages foreign direct investments and local investors. There is need for enhanced intelligence sharing among security agencies in the country.
Much as we commend the government for the rescue of the Kuriga schoolchildren, efforts should be made to secure the school environment henceforth. The incessant abduction of school children must not be allowed to continue. Let the government deal ruthlessly with the bandits and kidnappers and terrorists and stop them from terrorizing the citizens. Government should put more security arrangements in schools to check frequent abductions of school children and teachers. Let the government adopt the safe school initiative to ensure adequate protection of school children.
Security must not be politicized. Security agents should be motivated and mobilised to do their work effectively. Fifth columnists within their ranks must be dealt with. There is need for the government to interrogate persons known to have ties with the bandits. All hands must be on the deck in uprooting the monster of kidnapping from the land. The security agents should be up and doing in this respect. We need laws with stiffer sanctions to check the rising criminality across the country. The state governors should wake up and secure their domains.