With the reported release of abducted students of government secondary schools in Niger and Zamfara states and the subsequent shut down of some boarding schools, a public affairs analyst and security expert, Erasmus Ikhide has said the closure of boarding schools was in compliance with the demand of Boko haram which has declared their resentment for western education and civilisation.
In an interview with Vanguard Tuesday, Ikhide said the federal and state governments have not shown sincerity in government and to the people.
He said: “The crisis of insecurity is an economic problem that benefits them in government; some northern governors came to say they are shutting down boarding schools so that there will be peace but they have actually heeded to the demands of Boko haram.
“Boko haram has said overtime that education is an abomination and these particular governors have yielded to that by shutting down the schools.
“The governor of Kano state has shut down several health institutions and shut down several other schools so also Zamfara, so also Niger, Borno, Jigawa and others, so they have actually done what Boko Haram has asked them to do, that western civilisation be pulled down and these governors have listened to them.
“Boko haram is still there because they said they don’t want education, western civilisation. Insecurity and strategic studies, that is what we call negative empowerment.
“By the time you give money to free hostages, you have emboldened them to do more of what they are doing, you have made them more powerful than they envisaged that is what we are having so those who are still thinking that there is still government either at the federal or state level is deceiving themselves.”
He said there is an absence of governance in the country because of inefficient use of available resources. “The state is powerful when it comes to empowering thugs, empowering cultists to win elections but they become powerless when it comes to protecting the lives of ordinary people of the state that is the point we are making.”
