Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward In-text: (Adams et al., 2021) Your Bibliography: Adams, OT., Adedeji, MS., Majekodun, OA., Kehinde, BR., and Adams, TA. (2021). The Effects of Insecurity on School System (Secondary Schools) in Nigeria. In Ochigbo, Beetseh, and Abubakar ed., Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward. 1st ed. Akure: Science and Education Development Inst., Nigeria, pp. 126- 136. Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward Chapter 12 The Effects of Insecurity on School System (Secondary Schools) in Nigeria Adams, O.T1, Adedeji, M.S1, Majekodunmi, O.A1, Kehinde B.R1, and Adams, T.A2 1Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Nigeria, and 2University of Ibadan Abstract This paper aims to reiterate the effect insecurity has on the Secondary School System in Nigeria. Over the past 15 years, the Nigeria School System has been under attack leading to kidnappings and killings of students and school administrators. Measures have been taken to curb these attacks but unfortunately, instead of the attacks to mitigate, they are still frequent and the psychological effect on innocent students is alarming (there have been about 4 different abductions in the past 3 months). To safeguard the educational system from collapse, the issue of insecurity in secondary schools and Nigeria must be dealt with efficiently. This paper examines the various effects that insecurity has had, is having, and will have on the secondary school system. If these incessant attacks are not proactively dealt with, it will portend a longer term danger to the quality of labour force and human capital needed to drive a sustainable economy. This paper, therefore, focuses on the issues of school threats and examines the effects of those threats. Keywords: Insecurity, kidnappings, attacks psychological effect, secondary school system, Nigeria Introduction No nation can develop when there is a high level of insecurity in society. The far- reaching effects of insecurity are evident in most communities in Nigeria; they are less developed and backward. This is because insecurity in recent times has been one of the major issues bedeviling the majority of the Nigerian communities. The 2014 Global Report on security indicated that Nigeria is one of the crime-ravaging countries in the world. The report rated Nigeria high on the following critical variables: unlawful possession of arms, forgery, receiving stolen properties, false pretence, burglary, theft, Boko Haram, armed robbery, kidnapping, attempted murder cases, manslaughter etc. (Amirize, 2009). The importance of education has been adequately discussed in many fora and indifferent literature (Nwanne Nzewunwa, 2009; Ojukwu & Nwanma, 2015 and Ojukwu & Onuoha, 2016; Osanti, 2012). It is in the realization of the importance of education of the child that the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in its 1999 constitution made a declaration of the right of every Nigerian child to education, irrespective of gender, tribe, religion, or race. It makes sense to state that the lofty vision of education as enunciated in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 126 Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward would be realized in a serene and conducive school environment. According to Lehr (2014), the noble goals of education can never be achieved in a vacuum. They would be achieved in a conducive and peaceful school environment. If there is a feeling of insecurity within and outside the school environment, both students and teachers are likely to be deterred and this may inhibit the academic performance of the students. According to Akintunde and Musa (2016), an insecure school environment affect the learning of children. Situations of insecurity trigger traumatic disorder and toxic stress that affect learning negatively. General school attendance and enrolment are equally affected as parents pull their children out of schools while in some extreme cases, insecurity has led to the closure of schools. For instance, Borno State schools were shut-down in major towns as a result of insurgency (Ameh, 2015). These attacks on schools usually lead to vandalization and outright destruction of school facilities which discourage the establishment of new schools. Consequently, government resources are depleted as funds meant for other developmental projects are channeled to tackling the aftermath of attacks. In the end, educational attainment in terms of quality of graduates and manpower suffers which impinges on overall national development aspirations. Given the importance of secondary school education and human capital towards sustainable socio-economic development, there is the need to deploy extraordinary measures to tackle the spate of attacks on school facilities in Nigeria. Securitization remains a veritable option as the security architecture of the nation seems to be overwhelmed by the ongoing insecurity challenges. Securitization is a process by which state actors can transform subjects into matters of security concern that enable extraordinary measures to be taken. This implies that ostensibly non-security issues may be transformed into urgent security concerns which are therefore portrayed as existential threats to a referent object by a securitizing actor who thereby generates endorsement of emergency measures beyond rules that would otherwise bind. (Faist, 2005; Huysmans, 2006; Naujoks. 2015) Causes of Insecurity in Nigeria Many factors have been postulated as causing unrest in Nigeria. Some writers put theirs blames on the government while some others pass the bulk on parents. Other writers hold the youths as being responsible while others settle on the combination of these factors. Putting all these factors together will provide some of the following as responsible factors for the general state of insecurity in Nigeria: 1. Porous borders – the free flow of migrants from other countries to Nigeria through our borders allow criminals to enter the country without check. 2. The proliferation of Arms and Ammunition: Several arms hauls have been ceased at our air and ports, some in very large quantities. This is not good for the country. These arms and ammunition end up in the hands of criminals who apply the same in their nefarious activities in the country thereby making life insecure for the people of their locality. 3. Illegal Armed groups – Illegal importation of arms and ammunition has made possession of arms by individuals and groups very easy. We can name groups like 127 Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward Niger Delta Militants, Oodua Peoples Congress, ‘Bakassi Boys’, MASSOB that possess arms and ammunition. 4. Oil Bunkering – Nigeria is one of the largest oil producing nations suffers from the activities of illegal oil bunkering. This activity is promoted by the spate of insecurity in the country. This is back-up with criminals who are ready to die in Nigeria water-ways. This therefore makes the coastal areas of our oil producing states unsafe. 5. Labour activists – Early in 2012 the Nigerian Labour Congress call for a nation wide strike as a result of increase in price of fuel by government. They accused the government of insensitivity to the suffering of the people as well as ignoring the insecurity challenges in the country. Peaceful protests by Labour and other civil society groups have severally been high-jacked by miscreants and inflicted pains on people and made life in our cities insecure. 6. Kidnapping – this is another visible sign of insecurity in the country. The perpetrators of this crime do not spare any one in this new wave of crime that seems to have supplanted armed robbery and other non-contact crimes. Since this act began in Nigeria, aged, children, male and female have been kidnapped for ransom. This has made life unbearable to the citizens. 7. Militancy – According to criminal law, militancy is violence, illegal force or the illegal use of unjustified force or the intimidating effect created by the threat of this act. This word became pronounced in Nigeria when the Niger Deltans took up arms against government exploitation and environmental degradation of their area due to oil exploration and exploitation. This does not only exist in the Niger Delta area. Other parts of the country have witnessed militants who commit atrocities worse than the youths of Nigeria Delta whose area is given the 'brand name'. 8. Fear and Distrust on Government - What the current trend of violence is imprinting on the psyche of Nigerians is that the government security apparatus is incapable of guaranteeing the safety and security of its people. This has, therefore, impact on the general human security of the people as the situation promotes fear, limits the peoples' ability to develop economically. 9. Unemployment – The rise in Crime wave in Nigeria since the mid-1990s was as a result of unemployment, economic decline, and social inequality, which are abetted by inefficient and corrupt police and customs forces (Robert Stock (2008 Encarta Entry). The idle minds became devil’s workshop. These people who are mostly youth are easily recruited into militant groups and trained in to rob, kill, kidnap, smuggle, hijack to mention but a few. Accurate unemployment rates are difficult to obtain and generally mean little in a society where many who work are marginally employed and where begging is a socially accepted occupation. 10. Religious fanaticism/extremism – Religious fanaticism and extremism have been among the major cause of insecurity in Nigeria. The recent incidences of attack on churches and Christians in Northern part of the country by Moslem extremists have rendered several states in the north unsafe for life and properties. 11. Wrong Political Ambition – The desire for a political office not evil but to nurse negative reasons for that ambition can result to one doing anything to attain it. Ben Okolo writing from ^Johannesburg, South Africa observed that “the current crisis 128 Global Insecurities: Challenges and the ways forward which started in Bauchi and has engulfed other states in the north has elements of theocratic ambitions in it”.