EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: New Phase of Terrorism

SERVICE CHIEFS

With schoolchildren being the targets of terrorist attacks, it has become imperative for government to take the security of pupils seriously and review its approach to the fight against terrorism, writes Nkiruka Okoh

Across the globe now, especially in terror-prone areas of Asia and Africa, there is a rising incident of attacks on schoolchildren by insurgents. While in some places, the attack is to stop the growing girl-child education, others see it as a way of gaining attention of the political leadership to redress alleged “injustice”.

This, unfortunately, is beginning to compound the rising global insecurity and by extension, the political instability of many of the most vulnerable countries like Nigeria. Although, terrorist attacks on pupils are prevalent in terrorism prone-climes, not even the most advanced economies are protected from the senseless killings of schoolchildren.

However, some of the developed nations have taken steps to contain or stem the tide. For instance, as developed as the United States of America and Britain are rated to be in all spheres of their lives, they have not been insulated from the irrationality of killing of pupils by a few psychopaths. Yet, the governments of both countries have not ceased in their efforts to arrest such obnoxious happenings through conscious steps and measures.

But the inclusion of Nigeria in the latest orgy of attacks is to say the least, worrisome, coming at a time the country is still struggling to restore order in the terrorist-dominated northern parts of the country.

Just last week, there were reports on the massacre of 16 students in Yobe and Borno States, including their teachers. Seven students and two teachers were reportedly killed penultimate Sunday in Government Secondary School, Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.

The next day, five more students sitting for the National Examination Council (NECO) exam at Ansarudeen Primary/Secondary School, a private school in the Jajeri ward of Maiduguri metropolis, were killed; while gunmen also suspected to be members of Boko Haram again stormed a private secondary school in the Customs area of Maiduguri last Wednesday and killed four teachers and two students.

This spate of attacks had attracted global revulsion that a former Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Gordon Brown, in a statement, condemned the development.

Brown who is also the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Global Education, said in the statement that “In response to these tragedies, and events a day earlier in Pakistan where 14 girls were murdered on their school bus, a new global petition- led by Malala the young Pakistani girl shot for wanting an education- has been launched calling on governments to ensure that every child can go to school in safety.”

He said the petition- which demands that the UN implement its Millennium Development Goal promises of universal education by December 2015- can be signed on aworldatschool.org.

That was not all. The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has also expressed shock and dismay at the terrorists’ killings and wondered how in a school examination hall, seven students and two teachers were killed by gunmen and how this five-hour shootout at the secondary school in Damaturu was then followed by a grim sequel when on Monday when nine students were murdered in a school hall in Maiduguri.

But like Brown said, the Nigerian killings have parallels with the Saturday massacre at a girl’s college in Pakistan. By implication, the modus operandi of the terrorists is changing and attention is being shifted to a very crucial and sensitive area.

“There on Saturday, a bus taking 40 students from their college studies was blown up by a female suicide bomber, killing 14 girls. In just three days, 30 young people have lost their lives simply because they wanted an education. And there is a pattern that is now visible in these outrages. The five students who were killed on Monday at the primary/secondary school, in the Jajeri ward of Maiduguri metropolis, were gunned down in the examination hall as they started their annual exams.

“Once terrorists had stormed the school, the sect members opened fire on the hall just moments after the examination started, forcing students and invigilators to take to their heels. This episode resembles earlier attacks in Pakistan where only a few weeks ago at an all girls' school, pupils were gunned down and bombs thrown into the playground at a Saturday morning open-air prize giving ceremony,” he said.

According to Brown, Nigeria has more than 10 million girls and boys who are not in school, adding that the figure is the highest in the world.

“The poorest most rural communities are the worst hit of all. If you want to help their cause, join Malala in signing the petition on aworldatschool.org. As Malala said when supporting the new petition, every child has a right to go to school,” Brown said.

Although, the Borno State Government has promised to provide security in all schools in the state in the bid to stem the rising spate of killings of teachers and students and to ward off the ceaseless burning of schools by the deadly Boko Haram sect, there is no doubting the fact that the state government cannot do it alone.

The state also expressed concern that in the last one year, the terrorist group had razed over 50 primary and junior secondary schools in the state and caused government to spend several millions of naira in reconstruction.

The Borno State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Chairman, Professor Tijjani Abba Ali, who gave the statistics, said the state government was made to rebuild two schools shortly after they were built from the initial ashes. He said initially 10 schools were burnt for which the state received assistance of N120 million from the Ministry of Education to rebuild but the schools were razed again shortly after they were rebuilt.

Ali added that after the incident, more schools were razed, putting the total number of primary and junior secondary schools that have been razed by the fundamentalists at over 50. While noting that the destroyed senior secondary schools were excluded from the list, he confirmed the killing of six teachers and five students by the insurgents in primary schools in the last few days.

The SUBEB chairman informed that government though had set up a committee charged with the settling of gratuities of all teachers who died in service, it is common knowledge that government, both at the state and national must come together to confront the common enemy in a way that would distort the intuition of the anti-social groups.

Government must note that the initial excuses at the onset of terrorist attacks was not only because it was alien but because the security operatives were presumed to have been unprepared for the challenge posed by the development and as such, caught unawares.

But same cannot be said of the attacks on schools where the pupils are put at great risk. Not only because a few incidents had been recorded in other climes but also because the debate had been on in those climes on how to tackle this new phase of terrorism.

It is therefore expected that government must be proactive in  its approach to fighting terrorism by envisaging that an irrational lot could take its cause to the ridiculous extent. It is also instructive to note that the time to play politics is not now, especially with the increasing desperation of the insurgents.

As such, whatever issues or personal differences that may be between the state and the federal governments on account of some of the recent political developments in the country is not expected to impair their collaborative efforts at fighting the latest scourge of terrorism.

The security and safety of the schoolchildren is sacrosanct and therefore not subject to any debate. Beyond the self-adulation of “we are winning the war against terrorism”, all tiers of government must, without prompting, form a synergy, first by reviewing the present approach to containing the menace of insecurity that is already ongoing in some of the states and devise other means of containing the fresh onslaught.