A string of constant mass abductions has become undeniably disruptive to secondary school education in northern Nigeria, which already has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children globally.
In the most recent incident, armed men on motorbikes seized 317 girls at a secondary school in the northern state of Zamfara. Theses girls were taken into a forest, where the named men are prepared to hold them until the Nigerian government pays a ransom — something President Muhammadu Buhari has said his government will not do.
In a big picture sense, however, the constant abductions represent another phase of the constant attacks on formal education and life in northern Nigeria by the militant group Boko Haram, which has left hundreds of schools destroyed and teachers dead.
Girl child education, however, appears to be the hardest hit by the insurgency, with the United Nations Children’s Agency saying that at least half of all girls of school-going age in northern Nigeria aren’t receiving formal teaching, while only 53% of all children are in school.
Furthermore, there are about 7 million children out of school in Nigeria, most of them are predominantly in the north.
The abductions have become purely financial transactions. These people are using children to extort money.
Peter Hawkins, Unicef’s representative in Nigeria
Friday’s kidnappings add to the 42 people — including 27 students — who were kidnapped in the central state of Niger last week, who were freed in exchange for the release of two captured bandits, as per Daily Trust Newspaper. There was also a similar incident in December when 344 boys were abducted and freed within a week.
Zamfara and other northern states have shut boarding schools to protect students, in a move that clearly attests to the highly destructive threat that these abductions are posing to secondary education and productive teenage hood in northern Nigeria.
We hope a quick and lasting solution is found to this menace, to save the future and present wellbeing of school-age children in northern Nigeria.
