KIDNAPPING is a global problem that affects countries all over the world. Government are working hard to address this problems and ensure that the perpetrators are captured and brought to justice. Kidnapping refers to the abduction and captivity of a person, typically to obtain a ransom. Sometimes kidnappers hold their captives longer in order to demand more money from the victims relatives or associates. It is a wicked act.
In criminal law, kidnapping is unlawful transportation, aspiration and confinement of a person against their will. It can include tying someone up, gagging them, or stuffing them in a box and even hiding them in a bush/forest.Kidnapping may be done to demand for ransom in exchange for releasing the victim, or for other illegal purpose. Kidnapping can be accompanied by boldly injury which elevates the crime to aggravated kidnapping.
No matter the level of difficulty anyone is facing, that is not enough reason to choose kidnapping as an option to survive. There are many causes of kidnapping which include unemployment, poverty, religion, political issues, and so on. The practice can be reduced with governmental involvement.
Kidnapping of a child which is also known as child abduction, and these are sometimes seperate legal categories. The Nigerian education system is deep into crises on multiple fronts, including in areas of access and quality of education.
However, the recent spate of mass kidnapping of children arguable represents the graves existential threat and crisis to the education system. In less than three months between december 2020 and march 2021, more than 600 children have been kidnapped in nothern Nigeria while in school, in three seperate incidents.
More worrisome is the fact that the heightened insecurity is predominant in Nothern Nigeria, which is already the most educationally disadvantaged f the estimated 10.5 million out of school children in the country, 69% come from the north, where cultural practices and economic deprivation limit children active participation in school, particularly females. The Boko Haram crisis, with its debilitating effects on economic and parental trust in the education system could shrink significantly, and the problem of access to quality and equitable education. Could become severely amplified. Furthermore, with the devastating effects of the prolong school closure from Convid 19, adding insecurity concerns to the basket of challenges could lead to its irrecoverable collapse.
Kidnapping is not a new problem in Nigeria, and it is one of the country’s biggest challenges most citizens face. The country faces many problems, including unemployment, corruption, and low rates of education but it is kidnapping, thanks to high-profile incidents perpetrated by the Islamic militant group known as Boko Haram, that has drawn the world’s attention. The facts show that the rate of kidnapping is high.
Boko Haram’s kidnapping of school children are motivated by both politics and religion, according to their own leaders as well as the Nigerian government.
Sometimes, ordinary citizens participate in kidnappings in order to line their pockets, usually youths who are hired by rich men to do their dirty business. The criminals will target rich families and sometimes demand up to twenty million naira. But the question here is what are the causes of kidnapping and its effects or implication on school children?
There are many causes of kidnapping around the globe, including: Unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, religion, greed, politics and corruption. Some of its implication on school children are: Psychological trauma: The negative psychological effects of being abducted are huge, especially for a child. Depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) may last a lifetime.
Also, fear and lack of trust: In a society where the incidence of kidnapping is high, fear limits children and people’s lives and actions. They will always move with caution as they do not know who might be the next target. The rich surround themselves with security guards because of their fear of getting kidnapped.
What are the steps to make school children save again from the hands of kidnappers
Most targeted kidnapping of school children began in 2014 with the mass abduction of 276 female students in Chibok by Boko Haram insurgents. That event was ideologically motivated, and designed to extort concessions from the government. Recently, abductions have become more profit-driven, involving organized and unorganized criminal groups. The profit dimension to the kidnappings can easily complicate Nigeria’s security problems, as they could become more frequent given the high level of poverty and youth unemployment in the region amid the stark absence of legitimate economic opportunities. If education is to survive, it is crucial to urgently change the current dynamics and make schools safe again. This crisis requires swift and comprehensive action, both in prevention and supporting victims to minimize long-term damages. While the scope for improvement is vast and complex, here we outline four focus areas thatvif addressed might garner meaningful traction toward avoiding future school kidnappings and averting the further dismantling of education in Nigeria’s North.
Comprehensive threat assessment of schools in the entire Northern Region, with subsequent closures and relocation: In all areas of the North, even those removed from the Boko Haram controlled Northeast, numerous armed groups are increasingly seeing the potential to “cash in” on insecure schools through a “kidnap and ransom” approach. Conducting a threat assessment in all areas of the country deemed vulnerable to such armed groups including evaluating the location of the schools, their relationship to the surrounding communities (through consultations with local traditional leaders), and the state of their infrastructure should be a first step to assessing which schools are most at risk. Institutions determined to be unsafe should immediately be shut, with contingency plans in place to facilitate temporary alternative learning arrangements (here the lessons learned during the Covid-19 crisis may be useful), together with strategies for relocating students to safer environments. Preventing more kidnappings should be the priority, not only for the welfare of potential future victims, but also with a view to salvaging any remaining public confidence in the safety of schools and avoiding further insecurity-related dropouts, which Nigeria’s education system can ill afford.
Furthermore, the development of a strong community support network to ensure affected communities are not left collapse: Children and their parents who fall victim to armed kidnapping groups cannot be left unaided. Ensuring that they mentally recover from their trauma should be a central tenet of any intervention strategy that seeks to limit the adverse impacts of kidnappings on education. Children need strong community support networks tailored to the needs of children in conflict zones, including the training of teachers to help students recover from traumatic experiences and a greater availability of guidance counselors experienced in assisting trauma victims. If children are not to become permanently disillusioned with education, the fostering of positive emotions through affirmative training and building happier school-associated memories is crucial.
Lastly, addressing the long-term insecurity threat: The importance of dealing with the surge of economically motivated school kidnappings directly in schools cannot be understated. However, it is naive to assume that a school- or community-level intervention could suffice in the long run. Nigeria continues to suffer from perennial multi pronged insecurities ranging from terrorism there were at least 1,600 terrorism-caused deaths in the 11 months between January and November 2020 to the violent, ethnically tinged herder-farmer communal conflicts over agricultural land, which kill several thousands of people yearly. Without a comprehensive strategy to deal with the persistent state of violence, including a coherent plan to regain control of Nigeria’s “ungoverned spaces,” imagining a safe space for education is difficult.
Schools and school children are only safe in so far as the larger society is safe. Nigerian policymakers, school leaders, and communities must effectively and creatively come together to help reverse the current economic and education dynamics to avoid a catastrophic collapse.
