Learning on the edge: Impacts of banditry on education and strategic options for resilience in northwest Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to analyse the dynamics of violence against educational facilities and students in northwest Nigeria, specifically carried out by bandits. By employing qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, a comprehensive understanding of these attacks is sought. The paper notes schools and students are disproportionately targeted by bandits and are becoming vulnerable for various reasons. These include pervasive failure of governance, diminishing presence of the state in maintaining order, general lack of protection by the government, perceived weakness of students to mount resistance, and bandits’ propensity for illicit profit through ransom payment by victims. These affect the students in six principal ways: loss of lives, increasing burden of fear, rise in sexually transmitted diseases, decreasing enrolment in school, abandonment of educational facilities and forced displacement. In the milieu of banditry in Nigeria’s northwest, it is crucial to adopt the peacebuilding approach and implement security sector reform, safe school initiatives, development, social support and strategic health care delivery to victims in order to successfully eliminate, neutralise, and disrupt (END) attacks by bandits targeting educational facilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Bandits
• violence
• education
• resilience
• Nigeria

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview with a primary school teacher at Bargaja, Isa LGA, Sokoto state on May 18, 2023.

2 Hobsbawm, Bandits.

3 Uche and Chijioke, ‘Nigeria: Rural Banditry and Community Resilience’.

4 Ojewale, ‘Theorising and Illustrating Plural Policing Models’.

5 Slatta, ‘Banditry as Political Participation’.

6 Hobsbawm, Bandits.

7 ReliefWeb, ‘Displacement Tracking Matrix’.

8 Ojewale and Sadiq, ‘Why Nigeria’s Bandits Are Recruiting Women’.

9 UNESCO, ‘Protecting Education from Attack’.

10 Clunan and Trinkunas, Ungoverned Spaces: Alternatives to State Authority.

11 Whelan, ‘Africa’s Ungoverned Space’.

12 Taylor, ‘Thoughts on the Nature and Consequences’.

13 UNESCO, ‘Education Under Attack’.

14 Phillips, ‘Why Schoolchildren are Regularly Being Targeted’.

15 Onapajo, ‘Why Children are Prime Targets’.

16 Naveed, ‘Why Terrorists Attack Education’.

17 Ojewale, ‘The Bandits’ World’.

18 Rufai, ‘Cattle Rustling and Armed Banditry’.

19 Auwal, ‘How Banditry Started in Zamfara’.

20 Campana and Varese, ‘The Determinants of Group Membership’.

21 KII with a battlefield bandit in in Gundumi, Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State on July 18, 2023.

22 KII with a battlefield in Gundumi, Isa Local Government Area, Sokoto State on July 18, 2023.

23 KII with a former bandit in Sabon Layi, Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State on July 9, 2023.

24 National Bureau of Statistics, ‘Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index’.

25 Ojewale, ‘Rising Insecurity in Northwest Nigeria’.

26 KII with a former bandit in Sabon Layi, Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State on July 9, 2023.

27 KII with a former bandit in Bugaje, Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina state on July 13, 2023.

28 Yenwong-Fai, ‘The Nigerian Militant Islamic Movement’.

29 Ojewale, ‘Theorising and Illustrating Plural Policing’.

30 Interview with a senior officer at NSCDC Divisional Office, Isa LGA, Sokoto State on May 25, 2023.

31 Abdullahi, ‘Seized for Pleasure’.

32 Interview with a teacher at Garin Haladu, Birnin-Magaji, Zamfara state on May 13, 2023.

33 Interview with Police officer in Zurmi, Zamfara State on March 13, 2023.

34 Interview with the official of LGEA office at Riba, Danko-Wasagu LGA of Kebbi state on May 20, 2023.

35 Interview with a teacher at Nasarawa Mai-Layi in Birnin-MagajiLGA of Zamfara state on May 13, 2023.

36 KII with a defector in Allawa, Shirioro LGA, Niger state on July 4, 2023.

37 KII with a defector in Tagina, Rafi LGA, Niger state on July 6, 2023.

38 Interview granted by a teacher at Kandarawa in Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina state on May 9, 2023.

39 Interview granted by a teacher at Gatawa in Sabon-Birni Local Governemnt Area of Sokoto state on May 17, 2023.

40 Winsor and Bwala, ‘Hundreds of Nigerian Schoolgirls’.

41 Interview with a teacher at Kandarawa Primary School in Bakori, Katsina on May 9, 2023.

42 Mohammed, ‘Sex for Protection’; Ewepu, ‘Horror in Sokoto, Niger, Kaduna’; Oluwasanjo, ‘We Now Farm for Bandits’.

43 Interview with a Teacher at Kandarawa Primary School in Bakori, Katsina on May 9, 2023.

44 Center for Civilians in Conflict, ‘Nigeria Needs to Do More; Ewepu, ‘“I’m in a State of Shock”’.

45 Interview with a member of Parents and Teachers Association at Gatawa, in Sabon-Birni LGA of Sokoto state on May 17, 2023.

46 Interview with a primary school headmaster at Gatakawa in Kankara area of Katsina state on May 10, 2023.

47 Interview with a teacher at Nasarawa Mai-Layi, Birnin-Magaji Local Government Area of Zamfara state on May 17, 2023; Interview with a Teacher at Gatawa in Sabon-Birni LGA of Sokoto state on May 17, 2023.

48 Interview with a former bandit defector in Tagina, Rafi LGA, Niger State on July 6, 2023.

49 Interview with a former bandit in Bugaje, Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina state on July 13, 2023.

50 Interview with former bandit in Jere, Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State on July 10, 2023.

51 Interview with a former bandit in Dansadau, Birnin-Magaji Local Government Area of, Zamfara State on July 14, 2023.

52 Interview with a former bandit in Allawa, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State on July 4, 2023.

53 Federal Ministry of education, ‘Minimum Standards for Safe School’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oluwole Ojewale

Oluwole Ojewale PhD is the ENACT Regional Organised Crime Observatory Coordinator for Central Africa at the Institute for Security Studies in Dakar, Senegal. His research interests span transnational organised crime, urban governance, security, conflict and resilience in Africa. At various times, he has undertaken studies and stakeholders’ engagements in Cameroon, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Senegal. He is the co-author of ‘Urbanization and Crime in Nigeria’ (Palgrave, 2019) – adjudged as the first comprehensive book on the intersection between urbanisation and crime in Nigeria. His public policy and advocacy commentaries have been published in Harvard Bulletin, ISS Today, The Brookings Institution, The Africa Report, Africa at LSE, and The Conversation. He features frequently as a public affairs analyst on CNN, FRANCE24, BBC, Newzroom Afrika, TVC, News Central and CGTN among others.