By Muazu Elazeh

The attack on Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School at Maga community in Danko/Wasagu local government area of Kebbi State, where 25 students have been abducted, poses yet another serious threat to education. It is more so in a country with almost twenty million out-of-school children, a significant number of whom are girls.

For every parent, especially those taking the risk of sending their daughters to school, the hope is to see them excel in their studies and careers, become better mothers, raise responsible children, and contribute to building a better society. Indeed, it is rightly said that educating the girl-child is equivalent to educating an entire generation.

With an intolerably wide gender gap, Nigeria needs to focus greater attention on building structures that will widen access to education for the girl-child. However, the Maga incident, like the Chibok, Dapchi, and other similar incidents before it, will undoubtedly prompt many parents in the affected areas to question whether they made the right decision in sending their daughters to school.

Essentially, Maga, which is not an isolated incident, happened mainly because the nation failed woefully in combating the challenges of insecurity, especially in the northwestern state of Kebbi, where the newly formed Lakurawa group appears to be having a field day. Notably, the latest incident has shown that very little has been learnt from the series of school attacks since the Chibok incident. We have failed the girls again.

Fundamentally, the Maga school attack is yet another assault on education and a stark reminder of the ever-pressing need to ensure safe schools. In 2014, when the government launched the Safe Schools Initiative to ensure that students are not only safe while attending school but also provided with an environment conducive to learning, growth, and development, free from fear, there was widespread optimism.

The Safe School Initiative, ambitious yet plausible, outlined concrete steps to safeguard schools and ensure continued access to education during conflict.

One decade after the Safe School Initiative was launched and $30 million raised, the dream of a safe school has remained elusive, even as ASUU strikes continue to undermine university education.

The key challenge has been implementation. And more than anything, the Maga incident showed the extent to which those saddled with the task of ensuring Safe Schools failed not just the kidnapped students and their parents, but the entire nation.

Since 2014, when Boko Haram abducted 276 school girls from Chibok, Borno state, Nigeria has continued to witness recurring school attacks and abductions. On 19 February 2018, schoolgirls were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists in Dapchi town of Yobe State.

On 11 December 2020, over 300 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, were abducted by armed men and later released after six days. On 17 February 2021, 27 students were kidnapped from Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State, and held for 10 days.

Then came the abduction of 279 students from Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, followed by attacks on the College of Forestry Mechanisation and Greenfield University in Kaduna State. Similar incidents have occurred repeatedly, including the latest in Maga. One thing is clear: those determined to entrench ignorance have been consistent in attacking schools in Nigeria.

When the United Nations General Assembly designated 9 September 2020 as the International Day to Protect Education from Attacks, the aim was to draw attention to attacks on students, teachers, and educational institutions during armed conflict, the military use of schools, and the need to protect the right to education.

As a signatory to numerous UN conventions, Nigeria ostensibly supports all actions aimed at protecting education. Sadly, terrorist attacks have forced some schools to shut down. This is the reality of the Nigerian education sector, which has led to the intolerably high number of out-of-school children and the production of half-baked graduates.

The fact is that the education sector in Nigeria is under attack on two fronts: the terrorists who regularly abduct school children and the government, whose unwillingness to implement the agreement reached with ASUU has led to a series of strikes that disrupted academic activities in public universities. In this regard, the Nigerian government is the greater culprit, having also failed to address insecurity.

For Kebbi State, which currently has 1.06 million out-of-school children, accounting for 67.6% of the total children in the state, amidst a very low literacy rate of about 20.51%, which makes it one of the worst in the country, the Maga school attack couldn’t have been more devastating.

While the nation waits anxiously for the return of the abducted schoolgirls, the fact is that the Maga abduction has shown, for yet another time, how fragile education in northern Nigeria is. Now more than ever, there is a need to address structural weaknesses that have impeded the full implementation of the Safe School Initiative.

My heart goes out to the family of the murdered vice principal, Hassan Yakubu Makuku, those injured, and the parents and guardians of the abducted schoolgirls. These certainly are difficult times for them. The Nigerian government has failed them once again.

All Nigerians of conscience must call out the government for its blatant failure to protect students, educational facilities, and their personnel from attacks. Importantly, we must let the government know that its failure to hold perpetrators accountable, despite repeated incidents of attacks on schools, amounts to complicity. Without equivocation, for these attacks to end, those responsible must be held to account. The government cannot feign ignorance of this fact.

Some things are non-negotiable. Building a world where every child has access to quality education, as an indispensable component of a better life, is one of them. Therefore, the Nigerian government must take all necessary steps to protect education from attacks and dismantle the barriers to quality learning. This is the minimum requirement of leadership, anyone unable to meet it has no business remaining in office.

—Elazeh is the GMD of LEADERSHIP Newspaper