No one is safe in the north of Nigeria where hundreds of young girls and boy have been abducted by Boko Haram insurgents – and the government seems to be unable to counter the attacks.
The latest report is about an attack at a school at a Kankara school in Katsina State in the northwest of Nigeria. Hundreds of boys were abducted and more than 300 boys are still unaccounted for.
On the night of April 14 2014, 276 girls were abducted from their secondary school in Chibok. Borno State. On February 2018 Boko Haram struck again, abducting 110 girls from Dapchi Primary and Junior School.
These stories are just three of the horror accounts emanating from the northern regions of the country. The truth is that hundreds – perhaps thousands – of schoolchildren have been abducted. And many killed, too.
Abubakar Mohammed Kareto, a security analyst and renowned public commentator, told RNI that the lack of commitment by the government was “paving the way for the insurgency to thrive in the northern parts of the country”.
Kareto said: “We saw it when it [Boko Haram attacks] started as an infant, it started crawling, walking, grew up and started running. The government didn’t care about it until it became uncontrollable with hundreds dying at the hands of the insurgents.” He said that it started in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa and then spread to Katsina, Zamfara, and Sokoto.
Kareto said the factors that led to the escalation of insecurity in northern Nigeria included poverty, hunger, joblessness and illiteracy.
He said research had concluded that most boarding schools in the country were not well fenced; it was the same at universities.
He said the government had not learnt any lessons from the attacks, which were recurring events in the north.
Kareto said the government lacked the political will needed to deal aggressively and decisively with the attackers. Innocent residents felt more insecure. Many were being attacked and killed.
“Even though the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, had claimed responsibility for the abduction of the Kankara pupils in Katsina, researchers had found there was a disconnect between Shekau and his fighters and the insurgents appeared to be working independently,” Kareto said.
He said the fight should be taken to the bush. They should hunt down Boko Haram fighters and kill them. He claimed the government knew the hideouts of the insurgents.
Kareto urged the government to make schools across the country more secure, particularly in Borno and Yobe states in the northeast.
He claimed there was no harmony among the state soldiers and urged the multinational joint task force to engage more aggressively in the fight. He said if the slayings and abductions continued it would lead “to the collapse of our country”.
