Since the abduction of 276 female students of the Government Secondary School, Chibok in April, 2014, government at all levels have taken measures to ensure the safety and security of students/pupils in the premises of their various educational institutions.
As a response to this situation and other similar cases around the Country, the Federal Government launched the “Safe Schools Initiative” in partnership with the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, alongside Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders at the World Economic Forum for Africa.
It is thus worrisome that on the 25th of May, 2017, six Senior Secondary School students of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, in Epe area, of Lagos state were kidnapped by unknown gunmen and have remained in the custody of their abductors since then.
The kidnappers gave parents of the abducted students an ultimatum to pay a N20 million ransom for the release of each of the students, threatening to relocate them if their demand was not met.
Subsequently, it was widely reportedly by some major dailies that the students were relocated to another undisclosed location on Tuesday, 18th June through a new route in the creeks between the border of Lagos and Ogun States due to dwindling food supply to the camp.
While the Chibok incident occurred in Boko Haram ravaged territory, the kidnap of the students of Lagos State Model College, Igbo-Nla, presents a rather frightening dimension to the issue of security and safety of students as Lagos State is one of the most developed and sophisticated states in the Country.
Even more disturbing is the fact that there has been no uproar in the media and Civil Society regarding the subject.
Another worrisome angle to the matter is that the Lagos State Model College incident is not an isolated case. In March 2016, Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary pupils were kidnapped in their school premises. Kidnappers had abducted the three students of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School in Ikorodu.
Also, four students and two staff of the same Lagos State Model College were abducted in October 2016.
The kidnappers involved in the second operation at the same school, according to police sources, were suspected to be members of a militant kidnap gang.
The fact that the same institution has been attacked twice in such a short time seems to indicate that no lessons have been learnt from the previous incident.
In January this year, five students and a teacher of Tulip International School, located in the Isheri area of Lagos, were abducted from their school premises by gunmen. The gunmen invaded the school, formerly known as Turkish International School, on Friday night in a white Hilux van and took the students and the teacher away. The three female students were reported to have been rescued at a hideout in Imota.
Only yesterday, the Lagos state government issued a directive banning any form of Vacation Classes during the current long vacation in a bid to prevent any reoccurrence of the incident.
While this may be considered a precautionary measure, much more still needs to be done. The education sector is too vital to the development of this Country to be placed in jeopardy by insecurity.
The media and civil society must also be more alive to their responsibility by helping to sustain social consciousness on this issue.
As Bernard Cohen puts in a famous quote he made in 1963: “The press may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.”
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