Western education is a sin.’ That is what Boko Haram means
in the English language. Little wonder, the sect has
unmercifully punished those deemed perpetrators of that sin;
like the 29 students, and one teacher who were murdered last
weekend in Yobe state, or the nine students killed in a private
school in the Jajeri suburb of the city of Maiduguri last month.
Painfully, the list goes on and on. In June, 13 people, including
secondary school students and teachers, were killed when
Boko Haram gunmen attacked a boarding school in Damaturu,
the capital of Yobe state. Boko Haram has so far burnt down
more than a dozen primary schools in northern Nigeria. In
addition, in late April, more than 16 people were killed in
attacks on two Sunday services at Bayero University. The
administrative block of Gombe State University was destroyed
during an earlier attack.
File photo: Members of Boko Haram splinter group during a
news conference in Maiduguri, recently where they insisted on
a cease-fire. Photo: Nan.
After losing his 10 and 12-year-old sons to terrorists’ bullets
last weekend, Mallam Abdullahi, a farmer, swore to withdraw
his remaining three children from a neighbouring school. “It’s
not safe,” he told journalists. “The gunmen are attacking
schools and there is no protection for students despite all the
soldiers.” For Abdullahi, the grief of losing two children out of
five, by far surpasses the heart wrenching statistic that one in
five Nigerian children is out of school.
No doubt, these recent killings are already beginning to take a
toll on the already depreciating educational sector in the
north. Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State, reacting to the
recent massacre had in a statement directed that “all
secondary schools in the state be closed down from Monday
July 8, 2013 until a new academic session begins in
September.” September is two months from now; about the
same amount of time between when Yobe was declared a
state of emergency, and last Saturday’s attacks.
Human Rights group, Youth and Conflict Resolution Initiatives,
(YCRI), in a release by its Director of International Relations,
Mr. Efemena Agadama, said; “This is Yobe State that is so
educationally disadvantaged that the Federal Ministry of
Education had to give the state two (2) as cut-off mark while
Anambra has 139, yet, you find some group of people kill the
few innocent children who love education. It’s a shame for
such to happen in such a state and in a democratic nation like
Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the Education rights Campaign (ERC) boss said
that “these attacks on students in the north are bound to
reverse the efforts by the government to achieve education for
all by 2015. However, it is very likely that 10 years from now,
the government will blame the poor level of education in the
north on terrorist sects, forgetting that before these attacks,
the government already had a lackluster approach to funding
the education sector.”
Only last week, a recent report held that about 80 per mcent
of teachers in the north are not qualified. This, coupled with
the threat on teachers’ lives, foretells a bleak future for
education in the north. The National President, Nigerian Union
of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Michael Alogba said; “For the
education sector, this is sure to take a negative toll. It is
threatening to increase the level of decay in the sector. We as
a union are becoming really worried that no one is safe in this
country.
“Innocent children are being killed for no just cause. Teachers
face constant threat to their lives. We would like to call on the
authorities to provide leadership in this area. These killings
must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to book.
The government should also ensure that the family of the
teacher that was killed in the last attack is not left to suffer.”
With the highest number of out-of-school children in the world
– 10.5 million – it is not farfetched why the international
community is worried about these unfortunate events.
Lucy Freeman, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for
Africa told newsmen shortly after the attack, that “the
protection of children’s lives is paramount, and the Nigerian
government has a duty to ensure that the country’s
educational sector is not further threatened by the killing and
intimidation of students and teachers and the destruction of
school buildings. Such attacks violate the right to life and
undermine the right to education for thousand
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