The stakeholders must do more to secure our schools
When gunmen enter a school premises and cart away children, government needs to do more than sending ‘emissaries’ to negotiate with criminals. The authorities must recognise the implications of last week’s killing of a student and the abduction of 27 others along with three staff and 12 members of their families at Government Science College, Kagara, Niger State. The experiences of Federal Government College, Buni Yadi where no fewer than 58 male students were brutally assassinated and that of Government Secondary School, Chibok where more than a hundred girls are yet to be accounted for as well as that of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi where Lear Shairbu remains in captivity three years after, should have taught lessons on such tragedies.
For the umpteenth time, Bandits visited their dastardly act this time on Government Science Secondary School, Kagara, Niger State, kidnapping 27 students and 15 others, killing one and leaving in their wake, blood, sorrow and tears as families have been left devastated. This was only the latest in a series of similar nasty incidents, in the North East and North Central parts of the country. Thankfully, the passengers who were kidnapped from Rafi Local Government, also in Niger State, a few days before the Kagara incident, have been released. The Bandits are gradually extending their ignoble and bloody reign of terror, to as many parts of the country as possible. Like a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association said, ‘Nigeria is in a low grade war’. Does the Federal Government have the will, strategy and logistics to win this war? Jide Ojo, Emmanuel Onwubiko and Dr Sam Amadi take on the complex issues in this national malaise, and proffer viable solutions to fight it
When news broke of the kidnapping of schoolchildren and others in Kagara, Niger State, I felt my chest tighten. I later thought it strange, as one would think after Chibok, Buni Yadi, Dapchi and Kankara, a sort of jadedness would have set in. But that’s the thing about heartbreaking, avoidable tragedy: You never get used […]
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In January, Nigeria enacted a law that criminalizes gay and lesbian acts with up to 14 years imprisonment if convicted. In a country that ranks second on the list of Most Religious Countries, it was only a matter of time before politicians exploited our religious proclivity. Some Nigerian activists exploded with indignation at the unfairness of the law. In both traditional and New Media, they condemned it for what it is – an injustice written into law. They pointed out that the law infringed upon the rights of gay people to freely give consent as adults. While these activists acted nobly in resisting this act of injustice, the silence with which many have greeted news of unrelenting killings in North Eastern Nigeria suggests hypocrisy.