Of Nigerian Schoolchildren Kidnappings & The Mortgaging of the Future
Some 30 minutes ago, I watched two events that got my mind conflicted.
You already know that the Tokyo Olympics officially started on Saturday. Two day after, the global audience is already served to the heroics of Momiji Nishiya. The teenager became Japan’s youngest ever gold medalist. At age 13, she landed her final three tricks to get a rousing applause from lovers of skateboarding around the world. Winning silver was another 13-year old and yes, another teenager — 16 — won the bronze medal.
Around the time this was happening, 28 abducted teenagers of the Bethel Baptist Secondary School in Kaduna State were regaining their freedom. They had been held captive since July 8 when bandits stormed their hostels and forcefully took away 121 teenagers. The oldest is 19 years and the youngest? 10! Channels recorded a scene where scores of parents sang with hope as they awaited the arrival of their kids. As soon as the white-colored bus conveying the children was sighted, they erupted in shouts of joy, with many of them crying. One of the mothers was heard sobbing,
“The children are harmless, the children did not offend anybody.”
Indeed, they did not. And as the parents of the 28 pupils sleep in the same house with their children tonight, it must not be forgotten that 75% of those abducted will sleep in dungeons where they are being incarcerated by kidnappers waiting for the rest of the ransom, according to some reports. They had requested for N60 million to release the kids. While authorities have said no ransom was paid, there were claims by some parents that as much as N100 million was paid.
It is difficult to believe authorities on these matters any longer. Several claims of not paying ransom have been found out to be lies. A Wall Street Journal reported in December 2020 told of how kidnapped Nigerian Schoolboys confirmed that ransoms were paid before they were released.
An Incomprehensible Menace
On Saturday, Premium Times reported that bandits gave freedom to six out of a group of 28 people they had been holding for 67 days in Katsina State. A twist in the story is that two of the six released paid a ransom of N2.5 million, and as a Sallah gift to the people of the community, the outlaws choose at random four extra persons. Such is the state of lawlessness with these vagabonds.
When the United Nations released a report on July 13, 2021, they said that nearly 1000 students have been taken from schools in mass abductions since 2020. Of course that has gone way past that number now in less than 2 weeks.
Unsafe for Education
As at 2018, UNICEF said that more than 1,400 schools have been destroyed since the beginning of Boko Haram insurgency. Amnesty International released a report in April saying that over 600 schools have now been shut down over concerns of abductions. These are pupils whose only interest is learning. This was supported in June when the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, (NSCDC), said about 80% of schools in Nigeria are not well secured. You need no soothsayer to say we will continue to have more of these abductions if we continue on this trajectory.
While a lot is being said about schoolchildren being abducted, not much is being said about their teachers. When UNICEF commemorated the fourth anniversary of the kidnap of over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok in 2018, it said that at least 2,295 teachers had been killed in the North-east since the conflict started. How do you attract quality teachers when the few who devoted their lives are being killed like animals?
The Incentives for Kidnapping
Life is all about incentives and data shows that kidnappings offer that in great measure in today’s Nigeria. A report published by SBM Intelligence says an estimated N10 billion has been demanded by kidnappers ($19.96 million) in the first six months of this year. An average of 13 persons were abducted daily in Nigeria in the first half of 2021, according to this report, bringing to 2,371 the number of persons kidnapped in the country from January to June 2021.
Today, the BBC reported that after some children were kidnapped in another state in Nigeria, the parents went borrowing to pay the ransom. After selling their possessions including their only land, they came up with the N30 million ransom. After getting the funds needed to get their children back home, they sent an elderly man to deliver the ransom to the kidnappers. After collecting the ransom, the kidnappers seized the man and made him one of their captives. Thus, the parents have no N30 million. They also don’t have their children back. BBC reports that they have been left feeling hopeless following the messenger’s kidnapping.
Will the Government Please Stand Up?
For a country that already that has one of the lowest Human Capital Index in the world, at (0.36), ranking 168th out of the 174 countries surveyed, only better than Liberia (0.32), Mali (0.32), South Sudan (0.31), Chad (0.30) and Niger (0.29), what is happening is heartbreaking.
Many times, I am left wondering what the state of things would be without the donor agencies who rally round, risking the lives of their workers in these restive parts of the country. About this time last year, aid workers who had been abducted were shown on video being killed for daring to assist victims of insecurity that has ravaged the Northern region. Some of these workers were identified as employees of Action Against Hunger (ACF), International Rescue Committee and Rich International.
While teenagers in Japan are breaking record at the foremost sports competition in the world, Nigerian children are not going to school because of fear of being abducted.
This should not be.
