- Need to check herdsmen’s attacks on schools
Many primary and secondary schools in Odeda Local Government of Ogun State were deserted by students and teachers for about four weeks until a few days ago. They stayed away from school in Alabata village after herdsmen attacked and beheaded a 76-year village head in the village, Chief Akanmu Laisi, while another group of herdsmen stabbed 49-year-old farmer, Rafiu Showemimo, to death in Seriki village.
After the attacks and desertion of schools in the community, the traditional leader of Alabata, Chief Sanusi Wahab, quickly appealed to authorities: “We need a police post in our community. The police post that is serving our community is in Harmony Estate close to FUNAAB and is far from most of the communities.”
But the chief press secretary to Ogun State governor, Kunle Somorin, assured the press: “There’s no cause for deserting where people live. Government assures them of adequate security… Security has been beefed up to pre-empt and arrest those who might want to breach the peace of our people.” However, it took more than two weeks after desertion of schools for the community to hear from the spokesman who said: “The commissioner of police has held a security meeting with the villagers, Fulani herdsmen and resolutions have been made.”
While congratulating the police commissioner for restoring relative peace in Alabata to the extent of attracting pupils and teachers back to school, we deplore the violent attacks by herdsmen on members of the community and the resultant suspension of educational activities in the area. It is understandable that children and teachers would have suffered vicarious trauma from such violence that could make them lose confidence in those presumably employed to protect schools, students, and staff.
It is instructive that wanton killing by herdsmen inside rural communities has started to disrupt normal activities in specific communities, even at a time that the highways are not safe for motorists. Failure by the Federal Government and its agencies to stem the rate of violent crimes in rural communities where about 60% of citizens live can worsen the rate of school enrollment in a country with the largest population per hectare of out-of-school children in the world. It is also ironic that the same government that is ready to enhance children’s cognition through improved nutrition under the programme of feeding 10 million primary school children appears unable to provide security to protect pupils in their classrooms in Ogun, Edo, and other places where students and teachers have withdrawn from school for feeling unsafe. More concerted efforts on the part of the federal and local governments are needed not only to respond fast to emergencies but also to engage in initiatives that can prevent violent attacks on innocent citizens.
In addition, the rise in the spate of violent crimes in Nigeria’s communities, such as the one that suspended schooling in parts of Ogun State for weeks, calls for new strategic response. School children and teachers are major stakeholders in primary and secondary schools. Schools thus need special security to reduce violence in their communities. A system of rapid response to distress calls from schools is direly needed. If those who attacked Odeda communities have been apprehended and arraigned in court, such steps could have boosted the confidence of children and teachers in the process of maintaining public order. The abductions of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok and 110 in Dapchi still remain with school children, teachers, and parents for them not to panic anytime school communities are threatened by violence, as had happened in Ogun State.
It is time for local governments to, as one of several strategies, embark on using technology to increase protection of school communities. For example, installation of solar-powered CCTV in schools may assist law enforcement agents to identify and apprehend criminals. Further, federal and state governments ought to respond to the perennial problem of herdsmen and farmers, by finding a lasting solution to nomadic cattle rearing. In modern societies, cows don’t wander aimlessly with their shepherds, such that they would disrupt learning in schools.
Cows and herders should not have the freedom to drive – intentionally or unintentionally—students and teachers from the nation’s classrooms. Cattle and knowledge production can be turned into mutually reinforcing sedentary activities across the federation, as it happens in other democracies.
