Opinion
By Very Revd Fr Michael Adefemi Adegbola
A nation that kills her children is a nation without hope – St Pope John Paul II
Introduction
WE live in times of uncertainty and dangers. We do not know what to expect the next second, minute, hour, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. People are literally dying in Nigeria. The wanton killings and alarming figures of death and high-level atrocities, inhumanity and barbarism are frightening. In fact, the situation in our country today saddens me and makes me feel quite helpless and hopeless. The menace of kidnappers and bandit’s violence is a growing problem we must unite to tackle squarely. The seemingly endless spiral of abductions and kidnappings in Nigeria and the political turmoil affecting our government does not bid well for peaceful co-existence among our people. Our system has become extremely oppressive and dishonest. Senseless Killings, sexual violence and mass kidnappings for ransom have risen sharply, including on Schools. Our struggling students, loving families, caring friends and wonderful and resilient people seem to be experiencing the reign of terror, oppression and wickedness.
The cases of students’ violent abductions plastered across our daily newspaper has prompted an outcry from parents, educators, community and religious leaders, politicians and social commentators dismayed at the latest example of a broken and polarized Nigeria. We must know that the collapse of education and communication is the collapse of the nation. No nation will ever prosper when majority of its citizens eke life from the peripheries. This paper will begin with introduction, clarify concepts, causes and examine the problem and menace of kidnapping and its consequences on education in Nigeria and the threat it poses to national development and growth and a conclusion.
Clarification of terms
I. Kidnapping is a criminal act of the forceful abduction and captivity of a person, typically to obtain a ransom. Kidnapping is one of the country’s biggest challenges at the moment. It can be defined as the act of seizing and detaining or carrying away a person by unlawful force or by fraud, and often with a demand for ransom. For an act to be deemed kidnapping, it must involve coercive movement of a victim from one place to another, detention or seizure of that person be it a child or an adult. Kidnapping is usually motivated by financial gain or political benefit (Eyikomisan et al. 2021, The Perceived Effect of Banditry and Kidnapping on National Development in Nigeria).
II. Education
Education is a basic human necessity and a powerful instrument devised by man to improve his own lot in terms of investment in manpower development, skill acquisition, political sanity, healthy living, socio-economic development progress and cultural development and transmission. The United Nations Charter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes this when it proclaims as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations in Article 27 that:
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, radical or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Role of Education
Education is an essential element in the building of a better future and safeguarding international solidarity. It is meant to:
• promote self-awareness and help character formation of young people
• Develop real manhood and womanhood, and encourage the young to be creative and innovative enough to take and face future life challenges
• Provide the young with proper understanding and appreciation of the world and equip them for practical living, and also encourage and sharpen their awareness of spiritual and eternal realities
• Teach and strengthen their capacity to think intensively and critically, but also responsibly and positively
• Empower the young to build a better world, fight exploitation and degradation of the human life, and achieve more justice and equity in the world
• Develop an understanding of respect to the sacredness of life, the natural order, and appreciation of humankind’s multicultural activities
Children are our greatest treasure and hope for a better future and there is no limit to what they can achieve if well guided and equipped. Our little steps today in guiding and directing them will make a bright future. Therefore, it is our responsibility to ensure that every child has access to quality education regardless of their socio-economic status background or geographic location. We have the obligation to equip and empower young people to discover and develop their full potentials and in so doing help in creating a progressive vision to build a beautiful, healthy and stable society. When properly equipped, they have the potentials to transform the Continent’s old cycles of poverty, servitude and inequality.
Our desire for Children is quality education
Today, we desire for our children a quality educational system and a comprehensive social service, but see the opposite. We see innocent and defenseless children living in extreme violent families and growing in an abusive and repressive society. Innocent travelers too are encountering kidnappers who could more accurately be described as terrorists. Travelers are captured, abused, tortured and threatened with death. They are filmed and posted on the social media for friends and relatives to see. There has been incidents of violent and brutal kidnappings and threats from bandits and militant Islamic group against Christians, Muslims, institutions of learning, military formations, villages, Churches, businesses and families across the nation. Today the suffering and agonized people of Nigeria are appealing to the conscience of every human being with goodwill for safety and peace. Today we struggle with the reality of the menace and horror of the kidnapping of our school girls and boys. This experience has caused us much anxiety, tension, pain and depression. The MacArthur Foundation has observed that despite the Federal Government 100 trillion-naira budgets from 1999 – 2022, the number of out of school children in Nigeria has increased from 10.5 million to 18 million.
Causes and effects of Kidnapping
Across cultures and civilizations, acts of kidnapping, banditry and criminality are considered painfully subversive and repugnant. There are many causes of kidnapping, including unemployment, poverty, religion, political issues, illiteracy, greed, corruption and poor moral life. Kidnappers sometimes torture and rape their victims. Kidnapping has many negative consequences and effects and among them are the following: Psychological trauma, fear and lack of trust. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) may last a lifetime. It leaves victims with physical, emotional and mental trauma. It endangers peoples’ business and ruin their lives. It creates fear among parents of sending their children to school, reduce and kill learning abilities of students because of lack of focus and attention in school. It leaves family members suffering in the anxiety of not knowing what might be happening to their loved ones. Sometimes, women who are raped contact sexually transmitted diseases that keep them in misery for long. The kidnapped of loved ones leave relations helpless, with many days of negotiation, threats, sleepless nights and high blood pressure, leaving many suffering from Acute Stress Disorder and Hypertension (ASDH).
Cases of School Kidnappings and others
Boko Haram’s kidnappings are motivated by both politics and religion. Attacks on Nigerian school students from December 2020 to August 2021 saw hundreds of children abducted. The belief of this fundamentalist Islamic group that western education is prohibited explains why they continue to target schoolchildren. On 14th April, 2014 the sect kidnapped about 276 female students from Government Girl’s Secondary School Chibok Borno State. Again, heavily armed gunmen dressed in military uniforms overran the all-boys Government Science College (GSC) in Kagara Town, Niger state, between Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, 16-17 February 2021 killing at least one student. The attack is thought to have been carried out by suspected armed groups known as “bandits” that have terrorized north-west and central Nigeria in recent years. The School Children of Bethel Baptist High School, Kujama are still held in captivity. The attack in Niger follows a similar attack in December when about 300 schoolboys were abducted in Katsina, north-west Nigeria, sparking outrage at rising insecurity in recent years. The boys were later released, while the government denied widespread reports that the gunmen, who were associated with Boko Haram, were paid a ransom. The frequency and ease with which armed groups have staged attacks in north-west Nigeria have caused growing dismay.
The group has also carried out kidnappings of other schoolchildren as well as thousands of people across north-east Nigeria including the 110 school girls in Dapchi, Yobe State. The latest is the massacre of 40 innocent worshippers by suspected terrorists in Owo, Ondo State. It is said in Nigeria, that there are more than 1,000 kidnapping incidents reported in a year, and there are undoubtedly many that are unreported.
Daily Trust of Friday June 17, 2022 reported that bandits refuse to release Niger farmers after collecting 26 million. Twenty-one of the farmers kidnapped in February this year in various communities in Lawun Local government Area of Niger State are yet to be released by their kidnappers five months after they were abducted. Sometimes kidnappers hold their captives longer in order to demand more money from the victim’s relatives or associates. Bandits go around invading our villages, chasing our people with dangerous weapons, vandalizing their property, stealing their money and other valuables and burning their houses.
Conclusion
The security architecture of our country needs total overhauling. There is need to restore citizens confidence in government and democracy. We demand an end to all these criminality and harmful practices and violence against our children and students; against our soldiers been killed, our worshippers been shot at, our villages annihilated, our farmers been slaughtered and travelers been abducted. We reject kidnapping and violence as a way to achieve peace and insist that the road to peace is to work for peace itself through the fear of God, the source of peace and defense of the sacredness of human life. Our government who show lack of capacity, should wake up to ensure that perpetrators are captured and brought to justice. There is the need for a strong national security check by police and security personnel. The government should provide adequate security by intensifying aerial patrol and surveillance across our borders as part of its confidence building measures. There is the need to launch a national campaign to help victims and families cope with the physical, mental and psychological trauma that kidnapping causes.
We are glad that International organizations are joining Nigerian groups to combat this problem. Chad, Cameroon, and the United States have recently joined in the fight. Kidnapping and violence destroy. It does not build but weakens the moral foundation of the society, creating further divisions and tension. In an age of turbulence, Pope Benedict writes, ‘Parents, educators and community leaders can never renounce their duty to set before children and young people the task of choosing a life project directed toward authentic happiness, one capable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood, good and evil, justice and injustice, the real world and the world of virtual reality.’ (Messenger of St Anthony, April 2009).
Therefore, we must all fight in defense of peace and security for our children remembering the words of St Pope John Paul II which says: ‘A nation that kills her children is a nation without hope.’
***Very Revd Fr Michael Adefemi Adegbola, Vicar General, Catholic Diocese of Kano, Nigeria, 2022
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