By Muhammad Sani Mu’azu
Kidnapping in Nigeria is turning to be the biggest problem of the nation as it has affected all the nooks and crannies of country.
In the past, only weathy people living in the cities are kidnapped but now villagers and vulnerable citizens are more prone to kidnap than any other group of people.
Kidnapping in Nigeria became a threat to education when BOKO HARAM insurgents resort to kidnapping of Students which started on April 14th 2014 with the kidnap of 276 female students from Government girls College Chibok in Borno state, and as the time of this write up, there are still appreciable number of Chibok girls still in the hands of BOKO HARAM while some were released and others believed to have died in the hands of the terrorist.
Four years after, that is precisely 19th February 2018, about 113 female students were also kidnapped from Government Girls Technical College Dapchi in Yobe state by the BOKO HARAM terrorist, which was believed to be a slap on the face of the government of Buhari that criticized the past government for neglect that led to the abduction of Chibok girls, they government tried hard and rescued most of the students in less than a month time.
2020 was so disastrous to the world as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged all corners, but for Nigeria kidnappers has done more harm than the virus where more than 400 students were abducted from Katsina and Zamfara states, December 11th, 2020 was the day when about 344 students were kidnapped from G Science Secondary School Kankara in Katsina state which is a home state for President Muhammadu Buhari and the kidnap happened when he was in the state for end of the year holidays, and nine days after in the neighbouring Zamfara specifically Mahuta town where 80 Islamiyya school students were kidnapped.
Governments especially that of states started negotiating with those criminals which was believed to be the reason why they invest more on this profitable business and students kidnap become every days headline where on February 17th, 2021 about 27 students were kidnapped from Government Science College Kagara Niger state and on the same February that is on 26th 2021 over 317 students were also abducted from Government secondary school Jangebe, Zamfara state.
Kaduna state governor Malam Nasiru Elrufa’i ruled out that his government will never sit on the dialogue table with bandits that terrorized the north western part of Nigeria and to return this favour the bandits hit Kaduna state hard by abducting 39 students of Federal College of Forestry in Mando and three after a yet to be identified number of UBE primary school in Rama were also carried away.
These developments are so disturbing that affected the country negatively in all spheres of life which if nothing is done, Nigeria will be the most dangerous place to live, which no Nigerian is praying for that to happen.