Constant déjà vu

Thirty-two years ago, history’s most ratified human rights treaty came into motion when world leaders adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, till now, the convention has not been fully understood or implemented. Millions of children continue to suffer encroachments of their rights. Their childhood years continue to break short when they are forced to abandon school and engage in perilous work, get married or become child soldiers.

One such case study is Nigeria’s children. Even though Nigeria was rated the richest country in Africa in 2020 in terms of GDP output, 10.5 million Nigerian children are not being educated — 60% of these are in the north of the country where education deprivation is driven by factors such as economic barriers and socio-cultural norms which discourage education. At present, one in every five of the world’s ‘out-of-school’ children resides in Nigeria.

An important impediment to education in Nigeria is security. Imagine seeing off your kids to school and living with the constant fear that this may be the last time you do so.

On February 27 — in what was the second abduction incident this year — almost 300 girls of a government school were kidnapped for ransom by bandits. The pattern which followed was familiar. Strong government rhetoric, denial to give in to the demands and the eventual release of the captives. However, contrary to relief, the ultimate conclusion supplemented the increasing concern over what has now become customary.

Without exception, every time such an incident takes place, it brings back memories of the kidnapping of the 276 Chibok girls in 2014 which incited international outrage. More than 100 of the abducted are still unaccounted for. Such occurrences are a bitter reminder that Nigeria’s schools are increasingly becoming game reserves for kidnappers.

In order to fortify security after events of 2014, a ‘Safe School Initiative’, supported by the UN was launched. The Nigerian government also set up large, well-protected strongholds under its ‘super-camp’ strategy. However, efficacy is not solely dependent on initiating projects. The increasing frequency of the abductions can partly be attributed to the economic crisis the country is facing such as high inflation and falling per capita income. Goes without saying, Covid-19 further aggravated the situation. Other areas high on the list are the absence of effective policing and easy accessibility to armoury. Additionally, almost 80% of Nigeria’s security challenges are politically generated.

A constant objection is towards the unfair distribution of the country’s collective resources which ultimately gives rise to an unemployed youth bulge and a feeling of marginalisation and lack of participation in managing their own affairs. This gives birth to agitation, leading to insurgency. A second issue is that Nigeria’s security architecture tends to ignore local capabilities. As a result, non-native security agents are posted in places where a nexus between local intelligence and security providers is needed to keep up an effective chain of communication and information. Defect in this results in the criminals always being two steps ahead. Moreover, reports of impending attacks are often ignored by security agencies, further breeding mistrust against security power structures.

Therefore, first and foremost, changes in Nigeria’s legislation need to take place. Secondly, the security architecture needs to be decentralised and should take local participation into account. Thirdly, Nigerians should not feel they are being exploited and be pushed into seeking justice by themselves.

It should not be forgotten that the protection of children’s lives is paramount.

The onus of this falls on each one of us, the world over, to ensure that future generations are not further threatened.

Such debauchery cannot be accepted as the new normal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2021.

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