Expert urges urgent action to end school kidnappings
By Daniel Obaje
Dr Jibrin Abubakar, a media and public relations expert, has urged the Federal Government to implement stronger measures to tackle the growing menace of school kidnappings across the country.
Abubakar made the call after defending his 174-page PhD thesis on school kidnappings at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Abuja.
He said the situation demands urgent action beyond policy talks and recommended the swift passage of the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) Bill to secure forests and ungoverned spaces that have become hideouts for bandits.
He called for the full implementation of the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools, stressing that security measures must move from paper to action to safeguard children.
Abubakar said there is a need to combine security operations with non-kinetic approaches such as education, economic empowerment, and community engagement to undercut the appeal of banditry.
“These will help generate more ideas. It is also disheartening that our borders are very porous,” he said.
According to him, the unchecked proliferation of small arms and light weapons due to porous borders poses a serious threat to national security.
The media expert warned that the growing population of out of school children could fuel future insecurity if not addressed.
He therefore recommended that grievances and motivations of violent groups should be carefully studied to design interventions based on the Social Contract Theory and the Greed and Grievance Framework.
Abubakar called for regulating sermons that could fuel extremism, stressing that unchecked radicalisation remains a major security risk.
He urged the government to apply a strategy of leadership decapitation, targeting the top commanders of Boko Haram, ISWAP, and armed bandit groups, to disrupt their operational capacity.
Abubakar called for collaborative effect, noting that achieving safe schools and communities requires collective efforts from government, communities, NGOs, private sector and international partners.(NAN)
Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz
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