Nigeria School Security Déjà vu
Exactly 1025 days after the abduction of 110 schoolgirls aged 11–19 years old by the Boko Haram terrorist group from the Government Girls' Science and Technical College in Yobe State; bandits have emulated the traits of the deadly terrorist group and abducted 54 students in Kankara Local Government Area of Katsina State.
The Governor of the State has ordered the closure of all boarding school as the President expressed his sadness and condemnation of the cowardly act by the bandits.
In a one-hour video, I highlighted some of the challenges associated with school security and recommended four things that must be done to address this issue:
- Establishment of a Police Commissioner for School tasked with setting designate desk at Police Station with police officers trained in school policing.
- Setup a Presidential Taskforce on School Security with complimentary Special Rapid Force to undertake intelligence led enforcement
- Allocation of Police Family Liaison Officers to parents of the abducted school children to render specialise support to them
- The President whilst in Katsina should meet with all the parents of the abducted kids
- The families should be relocated to a centre where they are managed and cared for pending when their loved ones are returned to them
Doing the above would add value and boost confidence of Nigeria parents watching every move of the FGN on this matter
Complete overhaul of the security sector. There are more than enough jihadi and criminal groups who now know they only need to grab some kids and go into the bush to get a pay day. Unfortunately there are many politicians and security force members who know this as well
Director LLC ENISEY
4yThere should be a focus on robust security outlay to really protect schools especially those that have not gotten common/baseline security (perimeter fencing). But that is not just that, have we also looked at the economy and financial empowerment? Some of the youth are easy tools in the hands of evil , they say idle mind is the devils workshop
Senior CounterTerrorism Analyst. Europe /Middle East/Africa. CAS/CMAS/OIS
4yA never ending saga of incompetence. Billions of US dollars are being spent on helicopters and predator drones, what about diverting a small portion of this expenditure on boosting school security? Will never happen as long as government officials are pocketing massive bribes to procure these arms. This is how things operate in Africa! A sad reality but this is the truth.
18+ Years experience in Security Management / Global Crisis Response/ Travel Risk Management/ Intelligence/Investigation
4yWhile we look at school security management in Nigeria as a whole, we must focus on the subsect of these group at higher risk. The focus should be on schools in Northern Nigeria whose space have been taken over by terrorist or is it "Bandits" and the second group of schools are those located in outskirts who have now become easy prey for criminals. The approach to these 2 categories would need to be different.