THE WAY FORWARD
Being a Lecture delivered by His Excellency, Mallam. Umaru Dikko Radda, PhD Executive Governor of Katsina State, at the Convocation Ceremony, Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State-Nigeria Dated 24h May, 2024 at the FUGUS Convocation Arena
Your Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria and Visitor to the Federal University Gusau; Your Excellency, the Executive Governor of Zamfara State,
Your Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State; The Honourable Minister of Education; Members of the Federal Executive Council here present,
Members of the National Assembly here present; The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission;
The Executive Secretary, TETFund; The Chancellor of the University;
The Pro-Chancellor and members of the University’s Governing Council;
The Immediate Past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, Fe
University Gusau; Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Gusau
Visiting Vice Chancellors;
Heads of other Federal and State Tertiary Institutions in the State; Principal Officers and Members of Management of Federal University
Members of Senate of Federal University Gusau;
The Right Hon. Speaker, Zamfara State House of Assembly;
The Chief Judge of Zamfara State;
Principal Officers and Members of the State House of Assembly;
Members of the State Executive Council;
The Secretary to the State Government;
The Head of the Civil Service;
Your Highnesses; Royal Fathers here present;
All Heads of Security Agencies here present;
Staff and Students of Federal University, Gusau;
Parents and Graduands;
Other Invited Guests;
Members of the University Community: Gentlemen of the Press;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Introduction
As a nation, Nigeria is not immune to the worldwide issue of insecurity, which impacts all societies and countries. With nearly 444,000 Ukrainian soldiers impacts dinjured, the Russian-Ukrainian confrontal War II. A total 2022 was the biggest strike on a PEuropean nation since World Waincluding of 35,672 people has died as a result of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, including journalists and charity workers. Africa is likewise confronted with security issues; since April 2023, Sudan has been unstable. Like many other sub-Saharan African April 20 Nigeria constantly grapples with securitoß separatistshton hy the Insurgency of Boko Haram, violent herdsmen, IPOßern protects, and armed banditry. The combination of the Northern and Southern protectorates, which besulted in the merger of historically and culturally disparate ethnic groups, has been identified in the literature as the cause of insecurity in Nigeria. Due to a high frequency of security issues, the nation has recently been ranked to a hit the worst places to live. According to someolitidemics, Nigeria’s instability is either the result of Islamization or political machinations instabiler angle one takes, Nigeria’s security problems have severe impact on the country’s political and socioeconomic advancement.
Security and its antithesis, insecurity, continue to be major global concerns. Secountry or community can claim to be immune to the challenges posed by No courty. Countries like South Korea, North Korea, Russia, Israel, and the insted States have all seen various forms of transnational violence in the previous 20 years alone, including abduction, terrorism, and insurgency Preio-ethnoreligious conflicts have surfaced in Afghanistan, Nigeria, anc Kenya; while political violence and tensions sparked by politics have affecte countries like Gambia, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Suicide bombings, along wit other criminal acts, have increased and are spreading rapidly. Understandin the causes and effects of insecurity is changing, along with its intensity.
In contrast to the past, when insecurity and its impact was benign restricted to the loss of life and property, security experts, researchers, many others now agree that insecurity poses numerous and multifac hazards. One aspect that doesn’t seem to have received much focus academics and researchers is the connection between education Insecurity.
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to Sociologists, education is a social process that unites the social According to Alf and one of the moral individual self through eternalization on tai qualrul principles, social compe the acquisition and and (special) del qualities required by society via interaction with other andividuals ande eldunents of life and society. This process is primarily necessary for education to function and actively participate in society and fundamentally ongoing realization cohesive, stable, and progressive society.
Over the past ten years, Nigeria has faced significant insecurity; the 2022 Global Safety Perception Index (GSPI) ranks the nation 75th out of 141 Nigeria was ranked 144th out of 163 countries in the Global Peace Index in 2023, making it one of the worst places to live in, in the contemporary world. Since 2009, the terrorist group, Boko Haram, has devastated and destabilized the country’s northeast, causing hundreds of thousands of people to lose their lives and be displaced; those displaced being mostly women, children, and the elderly. Also destroyed are priceless private and public infrastructure. The North-Central region has witnessed a surge in violent conflicts between the native sedentary farmers and the nomadic cattle herders as a result of changing climatic conditions, urbanization, and increased cultivation of limited arable land for agricultural purposes. Nigeria’s educational system is in dire straits due to insecurity. Education has had its share of difficulties across the nation, but when students in schools run the risk of losing their lives or their freedom, our future is in danger. No less than 800 secondary school and university students have been reported abducted in the last two years as a result of coordinated attacks by terrorists and bandits. While these kidnappings are not new, they have nonetheless, increased in frequency since 276 students from the government students’ secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, were taken in 2014. If anything, the nightmare is made worse by how frequently these abductions occur now. But a lot of Nigerians who were angry before now seem to have become acquiescent, leading to the unfortunate acceptance that there will never be a safe educational environment in Nigeria, as going to school is now a dangerous endeavor that foretells the loss of freedom and life, and that, once your child is kidnapped, it is usual to scrabble about trying to gather millions in ransom.
Nigeria’s extreme insecurity is pushing education to the brink, so much so that educators, pupils, and the government, appear displeased and have actually raised their hands in desperation. This could eventually result in educationa deterioration and desertion. When that does eventually occur, it will hav fulfilled the ideology and goals of Boko Haram elements, who consid
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Western education dire disadvantag children and to be bars ntages for the conseg sequently must be wething that n aram and some destroyed advancement of of millions ducational adv the with of Niger growth and prosperity of our country, Niger
The north-wester have been turned wd into of Nigeria, including Rapper, Zarking, and Kaduna breeding habe for kidnappers seeking ransom and gton’s and the nation’s overall kidnapping of schoolchildren. The region educational development have suffered as a resultons. The indiges also plagu the South-South, South-West and South th-East of Biafra (IPOB) have instituted orders to stay Per People at home in an effort to pressure on the lederal government to free their leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who currently incarcerated
Boko Haram elements have consistently planned and executed multiple Boko Haramst defenseless students and instructors, and the government has atthe little to nothing to rein them in. The efficinch the Nigeria’s security agencies is called into question by the ease with which these gunmen execute agenciperations. Without doubt, the nation’s cunte measures to aturity has opered the adoption of drastic containmenof time and reddress the menace. Even though it would require a lot of timer and resources te accomplish, the results will undoubtedly be worth the effort.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is in the light of these worrisome circumstances, that this lecture focuses on the relationship between insecurity and unstable education in Nigeria, with a view to suggesting ways to mitigate the current security threats secote sustainable development in Nigeria and particularly, the educational sector.
Conceptual Clarifications
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Insecurity We must first conceptualize security in order to have a better Wehe idea of insecurity. Security, as defined by Omede (2012), is a dynamic of the ide that encompasses the ability of the state Ewetan and Urmd off any threats to its core interests and values. According to Ewetan and Urhie (2014) security also refers to the lack of dangers to a country’s political an socioeconomic goals, as well as its peace, stability, cohesiveness, integration. For Eloh (2019), security as defined by Achumba, Ighomereh and Akpor-Robaro (2013) include protection from crime (feeling saf predictability of daily life (knowing what to expect), and freedom fro psychological harm (safety or protection from emotional stress, which resu understanding
from third in one’s community that one is wanted, accepted, loved protected in one’s community or neighborhood and by peopl red, and
Conversely inved lay refers to a feeling of real or perceived lack of worry or or anxiety (safety (Beland, 2005), Stared differently, it alludes to resufficient or nonexistent safety against ha brought on by a it concentrates solely on bodily insecurity as a type of since concept is constrained does not include other types of insecurity sucs a type of insecuritnemi instability. Despite this drawhack, it is important to emphasize that physical insecurit the high endangers both people and property poses a greates to education sector than any other threat t and from insecurity may become depressed, fearful, uneasy, oppressed, lose focus. and lose their humanity y (Ozoigbo, 2019). of its kind anyone suffering
Instability in Education
Literally, education is the process of imparting knowledge and skills to people in order to shape their behavior and make them productive members of society. On the other hand, instability denotes being erratic and unpredictable. Primary and secondary schools, universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and other educational establishments are hubs for the development of knowledge and skills. These educational establishments are supposed to provide their students with the information and ability they need to succeed or excel in their chosen fields in a calm and hassle-free setting. An environment of instability makes it impossible for educational institutions to be progressive, predictable, sustainable, and stable.
An unstable educational system is reflected in a number of disruptions, such as extended breaks, abrupt or intermittent cessation of academic activity. delay in resuming classes, and temporary or permanent closure of schools. We define educational instability as alterations to educational policies, either across the board or within a specific subsystem. In an environment where the safety of people and their property is ensured, teaching and learning is improved. It is believed that learning in society is improved in well-secured environments free from security concerns (Akintunde & Selzing-Musa, 2016).
Forms of Insecurity in Nigeria
Insecurity in Nigeria takes many different forms among which following stand
out:
1 Terrorism: Terrorism is one of the security challenges Nigeria has today. The terrorist organization Boko Haram has been terrorizing Nigerians
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in the Northeast and beyond for more than ten years. This group’s belief that the Northeat and herbidden in Islam may help to gelandet dissuade Western education, schoolchildren. it has been targeting lidnapping
Armed Banditry According to Yusufu (2022), armed banditry originated as a resource-based conflict between sedentary crop producer market raids, vil and nomadic cattle herders. Nowadays, it has developed into a criminal operation that engages in armed robberies, abduction, village raids, and livestock rustling, among other crimes. The nation’s socioeconomic progress continues to be gravely endangered by the actions of armed bandits Nigeria’s national integration is in jeopardy due to the ongoing rise in armed banditry, which has increased insecurity throughout the country, particularly in the north. The majority of these armed bandits are not native to Nigeria rather, they are criminals who entered the country through our porous borders, from Niger, Mali, Chad, and Cameroon, among other African nations The frequency with which gunmen assault communities and schools is concerning, but government’s attempt appears to have been ineffective. The reason why insecurity persists in Nigeria may be due to the reactive nature of response from its security agencies.
Another form of security challenge that has continued to threaten both educational stability and national security in Nigeria is the perennial conflict between farmers and herders, especially in the North-Central region of the country. States like Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa have been reduced to theatres of violent confrontations between these two groups. Recently, in Omala Local Government Area (LGA) of Kogi State, armed men believed to be Fulani herdsmen attacked the Bagana, Agojeju-Odo, and Agbenema communities in the LGA leaving over 40 persons reportedly dead and property worth millions of Naira destroyed.
iv. Militancy: Udoh (2015), who drew inspiration from the country’s penal code, conceptualized militancy among others, as violence, the use of unlawful force, the unlawful use of unjustified force, or the intimidating effect that results from the threat of using such force. The criminal operations of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) and Niger Delta militants have put human lives and property in danger in the South-East and South-South- regions, respectively, in recent years. For the former, the group issued a sit-aw home directive effective every Monday in states around the region, whi governments of the region have not been able to overturn this directive.
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Causes of Insecurity in Nigeria Nige
Causan insecurity is attributable to a variety of reasons, some of which are interrogated hereunder
Poverty and unemployment: Insecurity in Nigeria is mostly caused by poverty and educationment. Every year, millions of young Nigerians graduate nom higher institutions across th Obtaining the increasingly difficult to universities continue to obtain white-collar employment. Our produce graduates who lack the necessary skillst independent after graduation. We generate graduates who possess credentials but lack competencies. This demonstrates once more, the to be consequences of the nation’s excessive veneration of credentials over aptitude and experience. Many Nigerian graduates start hitting the streets of the country’s largest cities in quest of jobs that aren’t easily available after completing the mandatory one-year national youth service program. When they can’t find work, most of these young people get frustrated and start looking for other ways to make ends meet. In order to make ends meet, some of them turn to illegal crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, yahoo yahoo, and computer fraud, among others. In order to survive, a few of the women turn to corporate prostitution. Poverty and the ensuing lack of food, as noted correctly by Egbefo and Salihu (2014), lead the impoverished to engage in violent and antisocial behavior, endangering the security of the Nigerian state.
ii. Weak/feeble security architecture: This is another factor contributing to the nation’s insecurity. It is Sd to note the security personnel who confront terrorists and other criminal elements are poorly motivated, lack adequate training and retraining, with no access to advanced weaponry that would allow them to take on criminal organizations such as armed bandits and Boko Haram, among others. It is undeniable that non-state actors with a motley crowd, like members of Boko Haram, possess more advanced weaponry than Nigerian security personnel. This is ridiculous! utterly absurd. This may help to explain why these criminals easily assault helpless and innocent Nigerians with reckless abandon. The absence of coordination among security agencies fighting insecurity is also seen as a weak point in the nation’s security architecture. Inter-agency rivalry is common and has negative impact on how well agencies work to reduce insecurity. The fact that enormous sums of money made available for the purchase of weapons have been embezzled and mismanaged, with the offenders not receiving enough punishment, is also concerning (Ozoigbo, 2019).
7Nigeria’s porous borders: The porosity of the nation’s borders is, also the country People enter be a contributor to the ongoing insecurity in buta and without detection due to the country’s extremely said to be and exit Nigeria at porous land horders. A onnel assigned to guard number of the security personne the nation’s land borders, including those from the ia Immigration Nigeria Service (NIS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), are known to be highly ams it individuals, including criminals, to dishonest. They take bribes and permit enter the nation legally from Mall, Chad, the Benin Republic, and Niger Additionally, some people enter the nation under the cover of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Transhumance while disguising as cattle herders. Once inside, they bring extremely dahilerdisguising arms and light weapons (SALWs), which theHopter use to plan attacks on Nigerians Adeola & Oluyemi, 2012). their own within nation (Hazen & Horner, 2007,
Substance abuse: Abuse of drugs or other substances also fuel Insecurity Drug misuse is a major problem in Nigeria, particularly in the north where a large number of young people abuse alcohol, marijuana, and other hand drugs including tramadol. When these narcotics are abused, young people become more susceptible to crime and are easily recruited by criminal gangs. It appears that there is no way to address the problem of drug misuse, as prominent politicians, security personnel, and businessmen are believed to engage in illegal drug use.
Ignorance and illiteracy: These twin two factors also contribute to Nigeria’s insecurity. Aghedo and Eke (2015) assert that a major contributing factor to the violent conflicts in northern Nigeria is the pervasive illiteracy brought on by subpar education. Despite all of the government’s attempts to Paise the literacy rate nationwide, the northern region of Nigeria still has the highest rate of illiteracy. Nigeria has a large population of illiterates and school dropouts, particularly in the north, where some parents choose to send their kids to Qur’anic schools where they can learn to read and recite the Qur’an since they believe that Western education is forbidden. In Qur’anic schools, some students turn into Almajiris. An almajiri is someone who travels in order to study new things or to spread Islamic knowledge (Aghedo & Eke, 2015, p. 103). The Almajirai are typically taught by a Mallam, an Islamic scholar or instructor. The youngsters are taught the fundamentals of Islam as well as th Arabic alphabet’s writing and recitation by the mallam (Oladosu, 2012 Qur’anic schools currently have a greater enrollment rate than traditiona Chools in some parts of the North. Because Quranic schools do not teac
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Nigeria’s porous borders: The porosity of the nation’s borders is, also the country People enter be a contributor to the ongoing insecurity in buta and without detection due to the country’s extremely said to be and exit Nigeria at porous land horders. A onnel assigned to guard number of the security personne the nation’s land borders, including those from the ia Immigration Nigeria Service (NIS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), are known to be highly ams it individuals, including criminals, to dishonest. They take bribes and permit enter the nation legally from Mall, Chad, the Benin Republic, and Niger Additionally, some people enter the nation under the cover of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Transhumance while disguising as cattle herders. Once inside, they bring extremely dahilerdisguising arms and light weapons (SALWs), which theHopter use to plan attacks on Nigerians Adeola & Oluyemi, 2012). their own within nation (Hazen & Horner, 2007,
Substance abuse: Abuse of drugs or other substances also fuel Insecurity Drug misuse is a major problem in Nigeria, particularly in the north where a large number of young people abuse alcohol, marijuana, and other hand drugs including tramadol. When these narcotics are abused, young people become more susceptible to crime and are easily recruited by criminal gangs. It appears that there is no way to address the problem of drug misuse, as prominent politicians, security personnel, and businessmen are believed to engage in illegal drug use.
Ignorance and illiteracy: These twin two factors also contribute to Nigeria’s insecurity. Aghedo and Eke (2015) assert that a major contributing factor to the violent conflicts in northern Nigeria is the pervasive illiteracy brought on by subpar education. Despite all of the government’s attempts to Paise the literacy rate nationwide, the northern region of Nigeria still has the highest rate of illiteracy. Nigeria has a large population of illiterates and school dropouts, particularly in the north, where some parents choose to send their kids to Qur’anic schools where they can learn to read and recite the Qur’an since they believe that Western education is forbidden. In Qur’anic schools, some students turn into Almajiris. An almajiri is someone who travels in order to study new things or to spread Islamic knowledge (Aghedo & Eke, 2015, p. 103). The Almajirai are typically taught by a Mallam, an Islamic scholar or instructor. The youngsters are taught the fundamentals of Islam as well as th Arabic alphabet’s writing and recitation by the mallam (Oladosu, 2012 Qur’anic schools currently have a greater enrollment rate than traditiona Chools in some parts of the North. Because Quranic schools do not teac
8
raditional or curriculum ithmetic. English, social studies, and fundamental pience, thet hadith, tawhid narrow. The reading and writing well as tafsiajiral currnchid and other areas of islamic setting of the Quran as of the almaling, whortculum (Oladosu 2012. p. 1821) are the kayf proper housing, wholesome food and water, appropriate clothing access to quality medical treatment. As a result, a number of the clothing, and access work asjessmenial errand boys, wood hewers, of water fetchers nevertheless, many of them turn to hard drug dealing, petty robbery, and thuggery (Aghedo & Eke, 2015, p. 104). These almajirai are poor people who live in poverty, which leaves them prone to manipulation by confict entrepreneurs and desperate politicians who will stop at nothing to gpin excessive political power. Oladosu (2012, p. 1821) most likely had this in mind when he stated:
Politicians deploy many almajtrai as thugs and hoodlums to incite unrest, start riots, disturb the calm, and further their own self-serving agendas. Indeed, it has been claimed that unemployed students from the Al-Majri schools were responsible for planning the majority of terrorist actions that involved suicide bombings, torching houses of worship, murdering innocent people, and damaging property.
According to Loimeier (2012), the Almajirai educational system has grown to be a haven for crime and instability over time. The majority of these almajirai are weak and, therefore, radicalized. Aghedo and Eke (2015. p. 117) have also Observed that the insecurity associated with almajiri system is a result of the governance problem, particularly the privatization of public resources by the uling class, which has resulted in inadequate education, joblessness, and idespread poverty.
Marginalization: In Nigeria, as in most other African nations, there is
increasing disparity between the rich and the poor in terms of wealth and arginalization. The current economic hardship in Nigeria makes it difficult many Nigerians to get by. To the dismay of the underprivileged, many liticians continue to flaunt their pilfered wealth in public even in the middle the current economic downturn. Some of these politicians acquire fancy s and other luxuries for their numerous concubines, who are dispersed oss the nation with public funds. In order to keep people in poverty, this ne group of people purposefully causes economic imbalances (Ozoigbo, 9). An individual has a limit to how much suffering or adversity they can stand before turning to violence as a response.
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Traditional or curriculum ithmetic. English, social studies, and fundamental pience, thet hadith, tawhid narrow. The reading and writing well as tafsiajiral currnchid and other areas of islamic setting of the Quran as of the almaling, whortculum (Oladosu 2012. p. 1821) are the kayf proper housing, wholesome food and water, appropriate clothing access to quality medical treatment. As a result, a number of the clothing, and access work asjessmenial errand boys, wood hewers, of water fetchers nevertheless, many of them turn to hard drug dealing, petty robbery, and thuggery (Aghedo & Eke, 2015, p. 104). These almajirai are poor people who live in poverty, which leaves them prone to manipulation by confict entrepreneurs and desperate politicians who will stop at nothing to gpin excessive political power. Oladosu (2012, p. 1821) most likely had this in mind when he stated:
Politicians deploy many almajtrai as thugs and hoodlums to incite unrest, start riots, disturb the calm, and further their own self-serving agendas. Indeed, it has been claimed that unemployed students from the Al-Majri schools were responsible for planning the majority of terrorist actions that involved suicide bombings, torching houses of worship, murdering innocent people, and damaging property.
According to Loimeier (2012), the Almajirai educational system has grown to be a haven for crime and instability over time. The majority of these almajirai are weak and, therefore, radicalized. Aghedo and Eke (2015. p. 117) have also Observed that the insecurity associated with almajiri system is a result of the governance problem, particularly the privatization of public resources by the uling class, which has resulted in inadequate education, joblessness, and idespread poverty.
Marginalization: In Nigeria, as in most other African nations, there is
increasing disparity between the rich and the poor in terms of wealth and arginalization. The current economic hardship in Nigeria makes it difficult many Nigerians to get by. To the dismay of the underprivileged, many liticians continue to flaunt their pilfered wealth in public even in the middle the current economic downturn. Some of these politicians acquire fancy s and other luxuries for their numerous concubines, who are dispersed oss the nation with public funds. In order to keep people in poverty, this ne group of people purposefully causes economic imbalances (Ozoigbo, 9). An individual has a limit to how much suffering or adversity they can stand before turning to violence as a response.
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Does Nigerian education instability correlate with insecurity? One of the biggest obstacles to Nigeria’s socioeconomic progress is insecurity, The stability of the education sector in contingent upon the absence of property and human security. In actuality, Nigeria’s educational institutions have been most negatively impacted by insecurity recently. The majority of schools lack a secure, well-fenced area. There are not enough properly armed and qualified security guards to keep an eye on these kids and their teachers Insecurity has the following repercussions on the educational system, according to Amakiri (2023)
a) Manpower Shortage: An institution’s quality is largely based on the caliber of its faculty. Because of Nigeria’s security challenges, many professional teachers have lost their lives, which has had a negative impact on educational institution’s administration. Jacob (2021) said that since insurgency began in 2009, Boko Haram has killed 2,300 teachers in north- eastern Nigeria, citing data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This implies that the quality of education is badly impacted, and as a result, the industry will have to deal with the issue of insufficiently qualified professional teachers.
b) Low Quality of Education: In many parts of Nigeria, school closures are regular due to insecurity. A school is promptly and permanently closed whenever it is attacked or threatened. Teachers find it challenging to cover their curricula as a result of the schools’ sporadic closures, which has an impact on the standard of instruction and the graduates these institutions produce. Due to insecurity, schools are typically closed in a number of places, including Zamfara, Borno, Kano, Katsina, and Kaduna. When the schools do reopen, the pupils are required to retake exams. Graduates created by insecurity ultimately lack the necessary knowledge and skills to function in the job, as Paul (2015) correctly pointed out.
c) Closure of Educational Institutions: In order to prevent additional attacks, the governments of several states, particularly those in Nigeria tha face security challenges, have resorted to closing educational institutions. Nigeria, school closures not only negatively impact the quality of educati but also impede the free flow of academic activity.
d) Internal Learner Displacement: Students are internally displaced result of Nigeria’s insecurity, particularly in the northern area. D insecurity, a large number of kids have been internally relocated fron
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schools. In order to survive, some of the displaced students and their parents have turned to living in campy for internally displaced people (IDPs), which lack sufficient social facilities and security personnel.
Impact of Insecurity on Stability in Education
a) Social Impact According to sociologists, education is a social process that unites the social self and organizes the individual self through the acquisition and internalization of moral principles, social competencies, physical abilities, and (special) mental qualities that are determined and required by society through interactions with other individuals and elements of life and society. This process is largely for the educated to be functional and actively participate in society, and fundamentally for the realization of a cohesive, stable, and progressive society. As a result, socialization is how many sociologists describe it. To put it simply, the level of interaction that characterizes a community determines the level of education inside it. The ability to learn, develop, or transfer (new) knowledge is correspondingly reduced in environments where people feel unsafe because the traumatic anxieties that permeate the atmosphere undermine relationships between students and teachers.
b) Impact of the environment: Education can only take place in situations that are comparable to, yet distinct from those that promote learning, with a variety of qualities including people, culture, space, and infrastructure. A healthy atmosphere is preferable for sustainable education. Nothing works well in an insecure environment, especially when it comes to learning. An insecure learning environment can exacerbate other issues like the destruction of existing facilities, scare off qualified teachers, trainers, and learners, and result in a shortage of creative materials, in addition to endangering effective learning through the behavior and interactions of both teachers and students.
c) Psychological impact: According to Zahra (2019), a student’s psychological stability has a significant impact on their academic performance. Three categories have been proposed by psychologists to represent the elements that influence learning: learner-resident factors, teacher-resident factors, and environment-resident factors. Nonetheless, tension and insecurity frequently resulted in emotional, psychological, and mental imbalances. Abraham Maslow’s hypothesis states that psychological needs, such as the need for serenity and a safe and secure existence, are the
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second most fundamental category of needs after a person’s needs for survival have been met. For instance, when anxiety, dread of approaching disaster, or a threat to one’s life predominates, one is not going to consider how to effectively influence, learn, or accomplish anything. This suggests that learning occurs more successfully when both the teacher and the students are in a pleasant emotional state that can pique students’ curiosity and focus the attention required for learning (or teaching).
d) Financial impact: The majority of the time, major or ongoing violence and insecurity have an impact on people’s livelihoods. This is shown in nations like Nigeria, Kenya, and others where social vices like banditry, kidnapping, livestock rustling, and conflicts between farmers and herders have severely damaged areas, exploited financial resources, and restricted economic activity. Many have been driven to relocate out of places where they can make ends meet and into places where they feel safe first due to political violence and tension generated by politics, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Myanmar. Because of this, the majority of people’s financial stability has been undermined, impoverishing those who ought to foot the bill for education and making it look like a luxury that is out of reach for some.
Nigeria’s out-of-school children as at May 2024 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has decried the increasing number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, putting the figure at 18.3 million. It noted that this alarming figure positions Nigeria as the country with the highest number of out-of-school children globally.
The Fund in its recent survey, identified Kanuri, Fulani, and Hausa ethnicities as the worst hit in the number of out-of-school children as at 2023 in Africa’s most populous nation.
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The figure below shows the percentage of out-of-school children in Nigeria by tribes.
Hausa
Fulani
Yoruba
Igbo
The
Source: UNICEF, (2024)
Figure 1.1: Out of School children in Nigeria as at 2024
The figure above shows out of school children in Nigeria in 2023 by tribes wit
the Hausas having the highest number of 8.11%, Fulan 13.3%, Kanuri 0.9 Yoruba 0.86, Igbo 0.8, Tiv 0.22, Ijaw 0.13, Ibiblo 0.12 and Edo 0.99. Suffice it
say that insecurity facing the schools in the upper north is one of the facto responsible for the rising rate of the out of school children among the Hausas
List of States with Highest Number of Primary School Drop-Outs Nigeria as at 2023
S/N State
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Kano
Rate
Kaduna
25,749
23,249
Katsina
17,408
Benue:
15,229
Oyo Bauchi
12,249
Lagos
9,750
9,267
Taraba:
9,223
Adamawa
8,864
Kanuri
Source: UBEC, 2023
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The above table shows school drop-outs which the list t of shows states with the highest number of primary that Kano leads closely on the Imber of primary school druperia’s northwest zone Following clos state with 23 of states with the highest primary school drop outs Kaduna state 23,249.1 This shows that the northwest figure is not unthe highest primary school dreest geopolitical 88.200. This figure is hut unconnected with the level of insecurity bedeling the northwest zone of Nigeria
Early Warni Nigerian instiracking and Predicting Student Abductions Throughout Institutions To effectively by event security agents from kidnapping schoolchildren. it would be highlyndesirable to predict the on-and-off behavior of transient criminal hot zones, as well as when they start and end. Detecting and predicting the beginning of criminal flare-ups has been the subject of much literature, but projecting the timing of changes in time series has not received enough attention up to this point. Most demand forecasting techniques rely on location and time series data with fixed spatial units (such as service br sales territory, census tracts, etc.), fixed time increments (such as days, weeks, months, and quarters), and fixed service or product categories (crime kinds in this case).
Compared to transient hotspots, one drawback of such data is the possibility of schoolchild abductions occurring outside of set unit boundaries and going unnoticed. A crime flare-up, for instance, could spread across adjacent grid cells and be identified in a new, bespoke area unit that incorporates the affected areas from the surrounding cells. It would not be detected as tallied, though. A flare-up that occurs across a series of consecutive time intervals could do the same. There are several techniques that generate unique spatial units, including the spatial scan statistic (Neill and Gorr, 2007) and Corcoran et al. (2003). The latter searches over all subsets of atom units and assembles the optimal set of bespoke area units from small “atom” units, like blocks. The spatial scan statistic is now computationally feasible for a wide range of applications, thanks to recent findings (Neill 2009).
The computational load is high, the analyst must build new custome observation units to interact with field officers whenever new data become available, and there is currently no empirical support for the accuracy of the methods in preventing school child abductions. The term “intermittent” be describes space and time-series data of transient hot spots. These data h
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demand (like the demand for spin the time parts) are tabulated at very lone level that many zeros appearitly clustereseries data with sporadic demand points that are frequently in time (Croston 1972: Resittier et al. 2005). However, the lentory in intermittent time series forecasting is only concerned withevels in order nagement strategies and estimating the ideal safety stock reduce associated with keeping inventory on hand. The goal is the expenses to avoid many inventories on hand while still having enough in hand to meet ding tod with a high likelihood in the event of positive demand.
Therefore, the models in this field do not deal with exact dimings of demands or run lengths, even though they incorporate estimations of independent parameters for arrival time and demand level distributions. The only requirement is to have enough inventory on hand to fulfill demand, which may be achieved with high probability by optimizing safety stock to stop Nigerian schoolgirl abductions. On the other hand, the issue of transitory crime hot spots focuses on the exact timing of start and stop times in order to prevent police resources from being wasted on crime prevention. The literature’s intermittent forecast approach is applicable to both transient hotspots and school kidnappings. Therefore, the framework for preventing crime might be applied to Nigeria’s situation.
Most time series models and techniques are designed for regular (non- intermittent) data, which is data with nearly all observations having a positive magnitude. In an effort to stop school kidnapping, the majority of time series forecasting studies focus on extrapolative techniques that only project historical temporal patterns and seasonal modifications into the future. It is impossible to predict the transient hot spot/sporadic forecast problem by extrapolating from the problems with school kidnapping. The smaller time- series literature is devoted to models that are “causal” in the sense that they are multivariate with independent variables. Causal forecast models using lesser crimes as leading indicators of serious crimes have had some success (Cohen et al., 2007; Gorr, 2009). Before positive demand, forecasts are biased. low (zero), and after a demand point, they are biased high (positive when the demand is again). Severe violent crimes like kidnapping schoolchildren are likely to have a short-term increase in the spatial unit in the near future i leading indicator crimes, like the kidnapping of schoolchildren, have recently had a substantial step increase in the spatial unit. These models hav relatively high false-positive rates, despite the fact that they perform far bette Chan random choices. Another drawback of these models is that, in order t
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obtain reliable estimates of model coefficients, they need rather large geographical units (such as census tracts), but crime hotspots are typically considerably smaller, on the order of blocks. Crime analysts are then requiredά to use their experience, crime mapping, field intelligence, and other resources to determine precisely where and when to intervene within the larger area marked in response to a leading-indicator forecast of a crime flare-up, such as the abduction of schoolchildren.
Accurate forecasting may be able to stop school kidnappings. Time-series observation techniques. An alternative to time series forecasting is offered by Cohen et al. (2009), McClain (1988), Trigg (1964), Brown (1959, 1963), and others. The goal of these techniques is to quickly identify a significant, unforeseen shift in time series data. Similar to hypothesis testing with a test statistic based on deviations from extrapolative forecasts, they are based on decision criteria. Time-series monitoring is more accurate than time-series forecasting for the abduction of schoolchildren in Nigeria (having higher true positive rates for given false-positive rates), but at the cost that the initial detection of the abduction of schoolchildren should have been prevented by the application and utilization of the crime-spots. A large, one-step-ahead forecast error (or series of errors of the same sign) provides evidence of a departure from “business as usual.”
On the other hand, if it were feasible to precisely predict a brief hot patch, then there would also be a chance to prevent the initial kidnapping of students. Similar to forecasts based on leading indicators, the crime analyst needs to utilize supplementary data and proficiency to identify specific places inside broader monitored area units. Because time series monitoring (as opposed to prediction) has comparatively high true-positive rates for given false-positive rates, it shows promise. For instance, based on Cohen et al. (2009), CrimeStat IV (Levine 2013) includes time series monitoring for crime space and time series data. In conclusion, none of the time series models and techniques now in use satisfy the requirements for police temporary hot spot management in order to avoid school kidnappings. In order to avoid school kidnappings in Nigeria, detection seems to be the only practical method for regulating transient hot spots in an EWS at the spatial scale of numerous blocks.
Final Thoughts and Future Directions
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, in the course of this presentation. have amply demonstrated that Nigeria’s national security is threatene insecurity with significant consequences on the stability of the cour education. The challenge can be overcome through the adoption and use
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early warning system (EWS), w zone. As identify which can ide elther a a transient has been s said previously, insecurity has a variety of the Juristent hot son schooling that are also dynamic in character. It is crucial to realize that uncertainty, whether it originates educational setting, negatively affects learning from inside or outside
Based on the facts at hand, the study believes that criminal behavior is not inherently mysterious but rather a a result of rational mental processes and Interaction. Therefore, the to develop measures for frequently follows a marked pattern of he security authorities responsibilityme in order to stop it from happeninne tempesult, using crifor preventing frameworks like the crime soft spot, crime prev hot spot, and crime crime chronic spot can help stop school buildings and kidnappings of students all throughout Nigeria.
In order to reduce school kidnapping in Nigeria, a combination of these In ordworks is required. To put it another way, rather than being merely frattive, the police, the State Security Service, and other pertinent security agencies need to be more proactive. The appropriate security services should view Northern Nigeria, which is prone to snatching schoolchildren, as a persistent hot zone for student abductions. As a result, the crime-chronic-hot spot’s proactive utility must be used appropriately.
The gathering of intelligence and the proactive application of that intelligence are crucial to the formidable task of preventing crime. For this reason, the Nigerian intelligence, policing, and security communities must act professionally in order to gather intelligence on school child abductions using the models of crime-soft-spot, crime-temporary-spot, crime-hot-spot, and crime-chronic-spot. They must also act quickly and pro-actively rather than reactively. Security personnel need to act with professionalism and ward against political influence from misguided members of the political elite who might wish to evade the intelligence acquired for personal gain, thereby allowing crime to continue in the nation. Any society’s effort to prevent crime depends on professionalism, and in order to accomplish the overarching objective of national security, the security agencies must collaborate as a single unit.
Additionally, administrators of different institutions in Nigeria are required to
ake concrete steps to secure the grounds of their establishments, primarily
rough the construction of perimeter fences. Once more, addressing the
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Insecurity that gives rise to the problems and making sure the solution offered is sufficient are the first steps in solving the problems (caused by msecurity) that are impeding the sustainability and stability of education in Nigeria. The solution must also take into account all the effects that insecurity has had on the educational sector and approach it dynamically.
Finally, the study made the case that Nigeria’s pervasive high level of insecurity is to blame for the nation’s educational insecurity. Attacks have been made against the nation’s educational system, particularly since the 2009 start of the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s Borno state. Since then, there have been multiple nationwide attacks on educational institutions of various sizes. Some of these pupils have been so demoralized and disheartened by these attacks that they have stopped attending school, adding to the growing number of children in the nation who are not in school.
Additional solutions to this issue include the following: (a) sound governance. (b). cooperation between security agencies (c) delivering high-quality instruction (d). Religious and ethnic tolerance (e) creation of jobs (1) Fair distribution of resources throughout the nation’s states and regions (g). Eradicating poverty.
Instead of making insecurity a political issue, the government ought to forge a national political resolve to combat it. Ensuring adequate security at Nigeria’s territorial borders.
References
Achebe, C. (1983). The Trouble with Nigeria, Fourth Dimension Publishers, Nigeria.
Adeola, G. L. & Oluyemi, F. (2012). The political and security implications of cross border migration between Nigeria and her Francophone neighbours, Internal Journal of social Science Tomorrow, 1 (3).
Aghedo, I & Eke, S.J (2013). From alms to arms: The Almajirai phenomenon and internal security in Northern Nigeria. The Korean Journal of Policy Studies, 28 (3), 97-123.
Ajayi, J.F. A. & Alagoa, E. J. (1980). Nigeria before 1800: Aspects of economic development and inter-group relations. In O. Ikime, (Ed). Groundwork of Nigerian history. Ibadan: Heinemann.
Amakiri, F.N (2023). The dilemma of insecurity in the educational system in Nigeria. The Nigerian Academic Forum, 30 (1), 1-16.
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