By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria’s future is being threatened by the abduction of students in the North, warns the UN, in a country where 10 million children are already out of school partly because of terrorism, which Vice President Yemi Osinbajo blames on the elite.
“It is traumatic for the children, undermines their individual dignity, and sometimes leads affected families to withdraw them from education entirely ….
“With education under attack, the collective future of Nigeria is under threat. This must stop now,” United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria, Edward Kallon, said in Abuja.
Insecurity cripples economy, stokes up joblessness, says LCCI
Counting other costs, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Toki Mabogunje said insecurity is crippling economic activities and making the unemployment rate worse.
She said at the LCC Security Meets Business Conference in Lagos that despite the government allocating N878 billion in 2020 and N840.56 billion in 2021 to defence, national security has not improved, per The PUNCH.
Her words: “This vote of resources to defence operations show the commitment of the government to making Nigeria a safer and more peaceful nation.
“Despite these efforts, the security situation in our nation is still a narrative of challenges, apprehension, anxiety, disrupted supply chains, and increasing economic cost from the impact of insecurity.
According to her, insecurity and armed conflict result in deaths and injuries, paralysis of economic activities, GDP losses, cost of peace-building and peacekeeping activities, refugees and IDP camps.
Need for collective, integrative security architecture
Citing data from the 2020 Global Peace Index by the Institute of Economics and Peace, Mabogunje said the economic impact of violence increased in 2019 to a total $453.1 billion or $433 for each person in Africa.
“Insecurity does not only impact society, but it also reduces the positive benefits that security and peace bring to the macroeconomic performance of countries.
“Since 2000, countries that have improved in security and peace have seen an average 1.4 percentage points higher GDP per capita growth when compared to countries that have become less peaceful as measured by the Global Peace Index.”
Mabogunje advised that for the government to achieve better results in tackling insecurity, a key turning point should be to understand the causes of insecurity as well as to investigate the sources of social disorder and instability.
She explained that high level of unemployment and poverty among, especially the youth, might have resulted in criminal acts, as failure to tackle poverty, unemployment, and business failures is one of the factors of insecurity.
“There is a need for collective and integrative security architecture by the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria.
“This arrangement should produce a strong and coordinated presence at the village, community, local, state, and federal levels with the responsibility of providing sensitive security information for security agencies in their areas of operation.
“This will assist in identifying criminals, their sponsors, and hideouts in the country. We urge the government to sustain the needed funding for defence operations to equip the military with advanced weaponry and intelligence infrastructure.
“These should be supported by heavy deployment of modern military intelligence technologies.”
Osinbajo blames the elite
According to The PUNCH, Osinbajo blamed Nigeria’s elite for promoting insecurity through ethnic and regional sentiments, activities, and utterances.
He bared his mind at a security conference in Abuja where he said the elite’s criticism of the activities of government without consideration is a recipe for insurrection and insurgency.
In his view, insecurity in any part of the country would be solved if the elite and other Nigerians return to a consensus.
“Some of the elite can’t come to a consensus when it comes to insecurity,” he said, adding that most elite ride on dubious activities to promote regional and ethnic cards.
“The elite use that to acquire more for themselves. Our political, economic, and religious elite should be socially irresponsible.
“Either by selfish interest or lack of self-awareness they are unable to build the social and political consensus upon which a just and orderly society can start. They promote tribal and religious frontline for legitimacy.”
Attacks, abductions impact 1.3m children in Nigeria
Vanguard reports that Kallon condemned incessant attacks on schools in a statement which noted that kidnappings have affected hundreds of children in many states.
He raised the alarm at the commemoration of the 2021 International Day to protect Education from Attack, which takes place every September 9.
“It is traumatic for the children, undermines their individual dignity, and sometimes leads affected families to withdraw them from education entirely. I strongly condemn every form of attack that has kept many children away from schools.
“I call on the federal and state governments to do more to protect schools from attack and ensure that teaching and learning were safe and conducive in all schools in Nigeria,” Kallon said.
“Whenever teaching and learning are disrupted, the impact on human capital development is enormous as the recovery period is always tortuous and longer than the length of the initial disruption.
“Children are traumatized, parents are scared, teachers and school administrators are afraid; attacks on schools are gradually spreading to areas not known to insurgencies.
“With education under attack, the collective future of Nigeria is under threat. This must stop now.
“With over 10 million children already out of school, conflict has aggravated the situation and deeply affected education and the prospects of many young people, especially its most vulnerable ones.
“In the last academic year, it is estimated that 1.3 million children have been impacted by attacks or abductions at schools in Nigeria.
“Across the north-east region alone, over 600,000 children remain out of school and some 1.1 million need educational support to stay in school. This has all been compounded by the setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
22,000 students and teachers killed or harmed
Over the past five years, according to UNESCO, there have been 13,400 reports of attacks on education facilities worldwide with more than 22,000 students and teachers killed or harmed.
In Nigeria, about 1,000 students have been abducted since December 2020 after terrorists started to hit schools, per The PUNCH.
Most have been released after millions of naira ransom payments, but scores are still being held in forest camps.