The authorities must do more to safeguard schools
The abduction of six Nasarawa State University students has again raised fears over the safety of education spaces, especially in the North. The students were reportedly abducted in Keffi after armed hoodlums stormed an off-campus lodge in Gudi, Akwanga Local Government Area of the state. Six victims have been identified, all students of the Faculty of Engineering, Gudi Campus of the University, alongside one other victim who was reportedly visiting one of the students at the time of the incident.
From Federal University of Lafia in the same Nasarawa State where students were abducted from their residential area to the University of Jos (UNIJOS) where gunmen seized seven students from a private hostel to the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) where staff quarters were attacked, resulting in the kidnapping of lecturers and members of their families, attacks on the universities are becoming all too rampant. At the secondary level, the killings, abductions of staff and students as well as the wanton destruction of school structures have already impacted negatively on education.
However, while many secondary schools have in recent years been targeted by these criminal gangs, that they would carry their dastardly operation to tertiary institutions is why the authorities should be concerned. Indeed, Manuel Fotaine, who currently serves as the Special Adviser, Child Rights, in the office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, has long noted that when schools are under repeated attacks and students become targets “not only are their lives shattered, but the future of the nation is also stolen.” That’s precisely the situation in Nigeria today.
