Analysis: How safe are Nigerian schools?

– A school should be a safe haven where students should learn without fear

– Nigerian schools have been stacked by armed gangs in recent times

– The government must safeguard our schools for learning to take place

Early last week, unknown gunmen stormed the premises of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, a co-educational secondary school in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State. The gunmen snatched three schoolgirls and disappeared into the night.

The news of the abduction sent shock waves across Lagos and beyond. According to an eyewitness account of the kidnap, a three-man gang had invaded the school shooting sporadically. The gunshots had made the pupils to panic. And not sure what was happening, they ran in different directions.

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In the midst of the confusion, the gunmen seized the girls and whisked them away. The invasion of the school was a tragedy. The fact that it happened at all should provoke an outrage in every Nigerian.

A few weeks before the three schoolgirls were seized, some kidnappers were said to have attempted to abduct some male pupils of Senior Model College, Owutu, also in the Ikorodu area.

These are not isolated cases and it shows that a serious crime is unfolding before our eyes. With the increasing waves of violent abductions in the country, it won’t be long before more criminal gangs invade educational institutions to kidnap more pupils.

The reason is that secondary schools are considered as soft targets by terrorists groups and criminal gangs. Indeed, the invasion of schools is a rampant phenomenon all over the world.

As more schools become the targets of attacks by armed groups, the need to make them safe has been the subject of research by law enforcement agents, government and school administrators.

As the world battles terrorism and terror gangs that continue to evolve new strategies to inflict terror on humanity, attacks on soft targets, such as schools, have become new ways of causing panic and using children either as human shields or tools to make demands on the society.

While the Ikorodu abduction may have been carried out for ransom purpose, it could have been worse. What if the abductors had entered the school and held the teachers and pupils?

What if they had stormed the school and camped inside its premises before making demands?

Some years ago, that type of scenario would have been considered impossible.But, if one considers what happened on April 15, 2014 when members of the Islamist group known as the Boko Haram invaded Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State and went away with about three hundred schoolgirls, who have not been found till date, then we should not rule out the possibility of such a thing happening in other parts of the country.

School invasions are global phenomena and Lagos is a global city that is not insulated from the events happening around the world.

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A school invasion, such as the one that occurred in Ikorodu, could have turned ugly. It was reported that the abduction took place inside the school premises. What if law enforcement agents had arrived in the school when the hoodlums were inside?

The entire school community could have been held as hostages by the gunmen while they negotiated their exit. On the other hand, the pupils could have been caught in a cross-fire between the kidnappers, who would have become desperate in the face of a siege, with law enforcement agents. Either way, lives would have been lost.

As the details of the school invasion emerge, it is instructive to note that the abductors did not wait for the pupils to stray before they were seized. They had entered the school premises with dangerous weapons.

Although the Ikorodu incident may pale into insignificance when compared to the Chibok school invasion and the subsequent kidnapping of the schoolgirls by Boko Haram insurgents, the strategy deployed to reach their target was essentially the same. The incident had occurred at night and weapons were used in the process.

There have been several school invasions all over the world. But the most memorable was the 2004 Beslan School siege or the Beslan massacre that lasted three days. Over 1,100 people were held as hostages (including 777 children) during the crisis. The siege ended with the death of at least 385 people.

The crisis began when a group of armed Islamic terrorists from Chechen occupied a school in the Russian town of Beslan. The hostage-takers had demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building with tanks, rockets and heavy weapons.

About 168 children were killed in the siege. While this may have happened in Russia, all the ingredients for an even deadlier attack seem to be available here in Nigeria. The Chibok kidnap should serve as a lesson to us.

While the Ikorodu school invasion was on a lower scale, it does not remove the fact that the men who attacked the school were armed. Moreover, crime is crime, no matter the scope and severity.

While this piece is not about scare mongering, we need to make our schools safe enough to prevent such invasions from happening again.

The effect of school invasion often affects school enrolment. It is usually traumatic for the affected pupils and their school. After the kidnap of the Chibok girls, the effect of the incident dampened participation in education in the North-East.

In an area where enrolment rates for girls are some of the lowest in Nigeria, families across the region stayed away from schools.

As a response to this situation the Safe Schools Initiative was launched by the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, alongside Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders at the World Economic Forum Africa.

The Safe School Initiative entails a combination of school-based interventions, community interventions to protect schools and special measures for at-risk populations. The initiative could be implemented in the northeastern states and expanded to other parts of the North.

The Lagos State Government can key into the initiative. But school owners and administrators must take it as a responsibility to protect the children in their care.

Schools must provide adequate security for their staff and pupils.

The primary cause of anxiety for many parents today is protecting their children from acts of violence at school. In general, parents and school officials are concerned about preventing children from becoming victims.

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School administrators must collaborate with law enforcement agents. School officials can also teach prevention skills for both staff and pupils. They can monitor visitors carefully by becoming more assertive in screening.

Visitors must be required to register when entering the school premises or campus. Schools must also employ security personnel. There must be regular patrol around the school premises.

Schools must also conduct background checks on teaching and non-teaching staff before employment. The task of making our schools safe is the responsibility of every Nigerian.

While I commend the state government and law enforcement agents for finding the girls and apprehending the culprits, the pupils of public and private schools in Lagos must not learn in an atmosphere of fear.

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