APRIL 14, 2023 marked nine years of the Chibok School Girls abduction which shook the whole world. That historic incident was Nigeria’s own equivalent of America’s “9/11”, when Islamic terrorists, Boko Haram, invaded the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in southern Borno State, abducting 276 girls at night.

It is still a big mystery how such a large number of human beings could be carted away in the dead of the night and successfully taken into the wilderness without the government security agencies being able to trace their whereabouts.

This sparked a worldwide outrage and gave rise to the now moribund #BringBackOurGirls, BBOG, movement. 

The abduction was one of the fatal blows to the President Goodluck Jonathan government and contributed greatly in his defeat in the 2015 presidential election. Since the advent of the Muhammadu Buhari regime, some of the captives have been rescued or found their ways out of the terrorists’ den. Up to 98 girls are still unaccounted for.

The sad part of the tale is that school abductions worsened under Buhari’s government. In spite of the huge sums committed by the Federal Government and UNICEF towards the “Safe School Initiative”, more than 10 incidents of school abductions were recorded in the past seven years under Buhari. 

These include the abductions at Dapchi (Yobe State), Kankara (Katsina State), Kagara (Niger State), Jangebe (Zamfara State), Ikorodu (Lagos State) and a host of others. 

The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, indicates that over 800 students and countless other civilians were abducted under Buhari’s watch. Indeed, just on April 7, 2023, another 80 children were reportedly abducted at Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

Many Nigerians have been wondering what impact the Safe School Initiative has exactly achieved. It was launched in May 2014 after the Chibok School Girls abduction. 

It was an elaborate scheme fronted by the World Economic Forum on Africa and Nigerian business leaders in league with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Global Business Coalition for Education and the World at School.

It should be noted that almost all the school abductions have taken place in the North, and this is mainly due to the existence of large swathes of ungoverned spaces. Government presence in the North tends to be felt closer to the state capitals because of lack of effective local government and communal autonomy. 

The large influx of jihadists, terrorists and bandits from the inner Sahel has destabilised the security of lives and property.

We look forward to a better job of protecting Nigerians by the incoming administration. They must return effective government to the grassroots if we are to make our schools in the rural areas safe again.