Governor Dikko Umar Radda of Katsina State has opined that, apart from poor leadership, abject poverty and high rate of illiteracy are the major siamese twin and formidable obstacles preventing Nigeria from moving forward to the expected destination.
Governor Radda made the disclosure on Friday while presenting a paper titled ‘Insecurity and Instability of Education’ during the 2nd Pre-convocation lecture organized by the Federal University Gusau.
He said over the past ten years, Nigeria has faced significant insecurity, the 2022 Global Safety Perception Index (GSPI) ranks the nation 75th out of 141, Nigeria was ranked 144th out of 163 countries in the Global Peace Index in 2023, making it one of the worst places to live in, in the contemporary world.
According to him, since 2009, the terrorist group, Boko Haram, has devastated and destabilized the country’s northeast, causing hundreds of thousands of people to lose their lives and be displaced, adding that, those displaced being mostly women, children, and the elderly.
“Also destroyed are priceless private and public infrastructure. The North-Central region has witnessed a surge in violent conflicts between the native sedentary farmers and the nomadic cattle herders as a result of changing climatic conditions, urbanization, and increased cultivation of limited arable land for agricultural purposes.
“Nigeria’s educational system is in dire straits due to insecurity. Education has had its share of difficulties across the nation, but when students in schools run the risk of losing their lives or their freedom, our future is in danger.
“No less than 800 secondary school and university students have been reported abducted in the last two years as a result of coordinated attacks by terrorists and bandits.
“While these kidnappings are not new, they have nonetheless, increased in frequency since 276 students from the government students’ secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, were taken in 2014.
“If anything, the nightmare is made worse by how frequently these abductions occur now. But a lot of Nigerians who were angry before now seem to have become acquiescent, leading to the unfortunate acceptance that there will never be a safe educational environment in Nigeria.
“As going to school is now a dangerous endeavor that foretells the loss of freedom and life, and that, once your child is kidnapped, it is usual to scrabble about trying to gather millions in ransom” Radda has stated.
