Chibok girls will live to hate schooling

By Reliable Click

Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, born in Abidjan, Cote d’voire is a professor of Counselling and Criminal Justice and Deputy Director (Academic) Distance Learning Centre (DLC) University of Ibadan. To give back to the society and mark his 50th birthday, he is presenting his book, “Policing and Terrorism: Challenges and Issues in Intelligence”. In this interview with our Correspondent, Oyeniran Apata and other journalists, he speaks about the pains insurgents have unleashed on the Nigerian child, need for intelligence and menace of e-parenting in the 21st century Nigeria. Excerpts

You new book titled “Policing and Terrorism: Challenges and Issues in Intelligence”. What informed your interest in the topic?

This book is a follow up to my first book on police, title of the book was, “Understanding the Nigerian Police: Lesson from Psychological Research” You may want to ask question on my interest in police. My PhD was on police. When I wrote the book and launched it in 2009, there were calls for a follow up on the book because literatures about the Nigerian police were scanty. Right then I decided to do a follow up and my plan was Nigerian police; the future continues. I was in chapter three of the manuscript in 2011 when the issue of terrorism became a more serious issue in the country. I have to put on my thinking cap and came up with new work.

Talking about terrorism basically in civilized climes it is the responsibility of the police to curtail terrorism. It is when police is unable to curtail the menace that the military is brought into the scene. What really informed the book goes both ways as my own little to contribute to the development of the society and nation building. Don’t forget universities exist to perform three main functions; to teach, conduct research and to render community service.

A university system should not only be restricted to teaching or conduct armchair researches but conduct researches that should rub off on the society. To the glory of God I have 92 works with 70 basically about the police. With the war and the insurgency in the country how do you help the police? How do we help the Nigerian state, how do we help the citizens to understand the issue of terrorism? The issue of terrorism is not totally new in the country because we have had the issue of Maitasine riot in the second republic but it was not as profound as it turned out to be now. Much of the researches in the universities should be policy driven because in civilized countries, researches conducted at the ivory towers are put into use by governments. Through such efforts, governments have been able to come up with useful policy that enriches governance.

The current issue of the swapping alternative of the abducted Chibok girls has perhaps taken too long a time to resolve. What is the problem?

Thank you so much, the issue of the abducted Chibok girls from Borno State is quite unfortunate as a new dimension to terrorism in Nigeria. When the issue of terrorism started in 2009, it began like a religious group in 2002. At that period when the issue started soon they noticed government went to bed and it became a serious problem. These people had pockets of conflicts with the police that were not escalated.  The last one that broke the camel’s back was the killing of the leader of the group Yussuf in July 30, 2009. At that point in time the Boko Haram people now begin to take a sort of vengeance on the state and the agency of the state they were facing was the police. It now became a serious matter, When it started the government did not take it serious and the problem assumed a new dimension. You will recall also the BH went to some Universities where undergraduates’ students and their lecturers were killed in the process. It was at that time they shifted their targets to the education sector in Nigeria. At that point in time, they now thought of how to get government attacked in such a way that the government will be embarrassed. So they resolved to abduct there innocent young girls who are the future of the country.

Thereafter the abduction that has been on for almost two months the bulk stops on the table of the President. The fact still remains that the President has a rich network of people working for him talking about security. At the point there was a kind of laxity or a king of intelligence that was not properly harnessed and this unfortunately led to the abduction of the girls.

. The question now is how did the insurgents escaped with the girls numbering over 200? We are talking about girls in their numbers, how they maneuvered the security posts without being accosted. This to a great extent has to do with the issue of intelligence. To me it is worrisome.

Talking about the intellectual aspect of fighting terrorism, what is the role of the academic community to provide useful insights into terrorism?

Members of the academia can step in to provide home grown solutions to the war on terrorism. Talking about what is done in the universities our researches should be cutting edge researches that will impact positively on the society. The outcome of these researches or findings should be done in such a way that government should know what is happening. Keeping the government abreast of issues is to tell government to act and let it impact positively on the needs of the society.

Talking about the incidences of insurgency, terrorism are we saying that there are no researches being conducted in these areas? How much of these do governments at all levels know?  Is there s synergy between the government and the university? Is there a hand shakes or synergy and where this exist it will amount to a case of theories in the universities and governance.

Take for instance the issue of National Security Adviser (NSA) he is responsible to the President and we also have the service chiefs who are also responsible to the President. At national security meetings, do they volunteer information, do all these service chiefs, the police, the army, Air force, and navy; is there a common synergy in which there will not be a kind of rivalry or “Oga at the top scenario”. Whether you like it or not the army is rated high in the security hierarchy. The army will want to put the police in check vice versa police too would also want to prove we excel in our own right and sphere of operations. Neither would the police want to take dictates from the Civil Defense corps. There should be synergy.

Most of what we do in the university is research based and in view of this we should not allow our researches to gather dust in the library in our offices. This should be made known to the government. Government should tap into what is done in the universities. In other countries universities are approached as consultants who use research to affect policy. If this happens, we will at the end of the day talk about a safer society.

Where does the society get it wrong with active involvement of children of school age; 13 and 20 years in betting that has now become fashionable and a way of breeding greater threats for the society?

It has to do with the value system in the society. As long as our values are eroded there will be problems in the country. Where the home front is not stable then there will be problems and issues. Thank God for technology but care must be taken in such a way that we will not abuse technology. I was in Uganda two weeks ago on e-learning for Africa. One of the participant canvasses for the use of phones by primary school pupils to enhance learning and I quite agree with that. Recently, I created a facebook account for a particular course I teach in the university.

Through facebook the students are all interacting and asking questions. What am saying is that the social media platforms can be used for effective learning. The issue is that youths now use the social media platforms negatively. Don’t forget that the 21^st century children are hurried generation. They are always in a hurry everything they do is e-these and that including e-betting, e-crime, they all also involved in what is called in counseling psychology e-suicide. Through this method a youth could send messages that he or she wishes to die by mid night and seek for people that willa join in the suicide mission. This is because they so much believe in peer group pressure and psychology and before you know what is happening at that appointed time mass suicide would be committed.

We are talking about erosion of the value system. If you buy a new phone, the children are more knowledgeable on the different parts of the phone that they turn around to use negatively. Our value system is grossly eroded. Parents no longer have time to take good care of their children because the inter-personal contact is absent because what is prevalent now e-parenting. Children are alone and because of these they pick a lot of social vices.

I wonder that these days what we have is e-parenting. In those days our parents will make sure that when they are out of home the care of the children will be entrusted in care of neighbours. If a parent is now asking children on phone are you at home, what are you doing, have you eaten, and are you in bed that is simply e-parenting and the children in return will put up e-behaviour. When that takes place you will have e-consequences.

What will be the aftermath of this on the society?

The aftermath is damnable. The result will be that if we continue like this it means that as a country the generations to come will be much more terrible because there will be more of evils in the society, more of terrorism, more of vices and there will be more terrible behaviours also. We are in danger because at some point, some of these children will return to terrorise us at the end of the day because where they have lost the values and no one is thinking about appreciating good values. As much as possible life will be meaningless to them. Where this is the case such a person can toy with lives at will. We are in for a serious problem.

On the abduction of girls from Chibok community, two after the abduction the police, army, joint military force and the international community have all been involved, yet the girls have not returned. She government swap?

Each time I think of the Chibok issue, I get emotional.  I was having a further reflection on the conditions of the parents of those girls especially the mothers. The girls are in a terrible situation in which they don’t know what may likely happen in the next minute. With insurgents you cannot predict what will happen. The wellbeing of the parents especially the mother, since two months they have been abducted, yes they will be eating but only to keep body and soul together.

Talking about what is happening to them right now. Their education is a post-rescue issue. Perhaps some of them might have been put in family ways forcefully given course to a situation in which the girls will carry pregnancies of babies they not happy about. If eventually she gives birth to the baby she would leave to regret. Each time she sees the baby brings back terrible memories. The girls are presently going through terrible memories. The trauma they are passing through is highly debilitating and not good for any sane human being in the 21^st century.

What will be the impact of the trauma on the girls after rescue?

Those children will live to hate schooling. They will live not to believe in the Nigerian state, they will leave not to believe in the security of the country, they will live not to thrust any other person because of the terrible experiences they were subjected to.

Seventy-three days in Sambisa forest, what should government do free the girls?

The condition given by the Boko Haram group is that government should release their members and families. I will say yes and no. In war there are prisoners of war. Those women and children of the sect are prisoners of war. In the first instance government should have done something long before now. There is no sense in detaining people for weeks and months without taking them to a law court for trial. Government erred in that aspect. For the prisoner of war, the government should release the children, wives of the Boko Haram and enter into dialogue that because the children they abducted were innocent young Nigerians. My advice for the government is to do just that.

Talking about the terrorists it becomes very serious because terrorism is a crime against the state. For such persons to be release where he or she has not shown any remorse you only made him to be stronger in crime. We should not forget terrorism is a pyramid at the topmost are true believers, you have the sympathizers. For the people that were arrested are the true believer in terrorism because of this the act to them is a way of life. If after months of incarceration and release, they will go back to it.

My advice is that government should swap the sect’s women for the girls. For the real terrorist in detention the government should allow the weight of the law to take its course.

Can we begin to count losses of this siege on the education sector, trauma on the families, the society, the community, and children of school age?

The losses are uncountable. When terrorism started, it was initially not targeted at the education sector in Nigeria. But later they started attacking universities and later school children. It becomes more worrisome. At that point we are talking about school children and not adolescents.

In the first place as child comes of age, the first day in a school environment is negative as the child will cry out his or her heart not wanting to stay in school. It is normal for a child to refuse schooling. And it is these same children that will be in schools that are not safe for learning.

For learning activity to take place there must be friendly environment. You cannot learn effectively in a situation where someone is keeping watch over you fully armed with AK47. The teacher in the classroom will not deliver vice versa the children been taught will not learn. And for serious learning to take place the cognitive aspect will have to be at its peak, affective domain will also be at the peak and other factors must be in functional state.

You are talking about out of school children before insurgency that runs into millions and with the issue of Boko Haram we should begin to count losses in terms of humanity, manpower, losses in terms of people, illiteracy, losses in terms of the millions already sent out of school that will later recycle themselves.

In the past we have the issue of Almajiris and recently government was thinking about getting schools for the Almajiris where the issue of Boko Haram thrives in the far north. At that point in time thy will not be in school again. The loss is colossal talking about the lives of the children.