The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has spoken out against the incessant abduction of school students and workers that is currently battering the well being of the formal education system in Nigeria, stating that the kidnappers were certainly killing the educational sector.
The National Secretary of the union, Dr Mike Ene, stated this position in a Newspaper interview with Tribune Online, on Monday. He further called for something concrete to be done fast particularly by all tiers of government to arrest the trend, to save the country’s education sector and (invariably), its economic development.
It is very unfortunate that schools have become the soft target for kidnappers to make money in Nigeria. And even more so is the fact that these kidnappers no longer have any boundaries to their modus operandi. They now abduct (both male and female) students, their teachers and other school workers as they please.
In exclusive interview, Ene made it known that one of the reasons these kidnappers are having such a field day is because they have some “well-meaning” individuals in the society who sponsor them in a myriad of ways, and that the far-reaching infleunce of this “well-meaning” individuals on government officials might be a reason why the government fails to prosecute arrested perpetrators for justice’s sake and to serve as as a deterrent for others.
He also asserted that had the abductorss been foreigners without internal collaborators, as the government is portraying them to be, they would not be having such successful operations.
He then went on to stress that these abductions are gradually shutting down the Nigerian education system, especially in northern Nigeria, where the number of out-of-school children is already large. Meanwhile, the string of abductions has also led many parents of school children in the region to stop their children from going back to school.
He shared, that had the Nigerian government been alive to its responsibility to secure the lives of students, teachers, school workers and other law-abiding Nigerians, especially after the Chibok, Dapchi and Katsina school abductions, the latest abductions would not have occurred.
And as long as the perpetrators keep getting away with their illegal business and keep getting huge ransoms as profit, the more they would want to keep themselves in the ‘business’ and even recruit more members, while the educational system and the economy at large suffer ruin.
The optics get further saddening when it is brought to the fore that up to 10 out of 200 kidnapped children would likely form a faulty national orientations and and groom a tendency to become criminal in the future after rescue if not properly rehabilitated upon reintegration into the society.
Again, we plead with the Nigerian government at all levels (especially in northern Nigeria) and all other stakeholders to leave no stone unturned in securing the students, teachers, school staff and all other individuals the abductors are holding hostage.
We also plead with the government to provide adequate safety around schools nationwide, as this will go a long way in restoring confidence in the formal education system, especially in northern Nigeria.
