While owls hooted eerily in the darkness of the night of April 14, 2014 in Borno State, north-east Nigeria, a band of armed Boko Haram terrorists infiltrated the Government Girls Secondary School, a boarding establishment in the remote town of Chibok and kidnapped 276 adolescent female students, setting off a long and wandering voyage, physically and emotionally, for the hapless little ones and their parents, guardians, siblings and all who love them.
It is ten years now and for many of the girls and their families, the disconnect lingers, as they have not been seen or heard from since then, except in some instances, for fleeting rumours from here and there, now and again, amounting to nothing.
Fifty-seven of the schoolgirls escaped immediately following the incident by jumping from the trucks on which they were being transported, and others have been rescued by the Nigerian Armed Forces on various occasions. We must give thanks and kudos to the military for this.
However, 91 of the girls are still said to be unaccounted for.
Of those that regained their freedom, several had been forced into marriages with Boko Haram fighters for whom they have borne children, still their families would be glad to have them back.
This odyssey has cut across the tenures of three Nigerian presidents and elicited outcry and encouragement from all corners of the world. There have also been offers of help from beyond our borders which were not taken up.
Some administrations have been accused of politicising the plight of the abducted girls, while others have been perceived as not showing sufficient commitment in the effort to liberate them.
However, the thinking which seems to have the most substance is that which ascribes the failure to liberate the remaining 91 girls after ten years, mostly to loopholes and lapses in spatial governance.
It appears that there are too many ungoverned spaces in our country.
Ungoverned spaces refer to locations unreached by the government, hence becoming vulnerable to non-state armed groups (NSAGs) according to Reliefweb.
Some experts claim the spread of terror across Nigeria results from limited governance structures in rural locations. In Nigeria, ungoverned spaces and porous borders create havens for marauding non-state armed groups, Reliefweb adds.
While the Nigerian government strives to contain security threats, they tend to spread in scale and frequency, intensifying security needs across the nation.
Ungoverned spaces create largely unfettered opportunities for non-state armed groups to market themselves and undermine government authority. For instance, in 2021, some communities in Niger State negotiated peace deals with insurgents by offering them motorcycles and cash gifts in return for safety. In other cases, terrorists provide makeshift governance frameworks in some communities, imposing taxes and levies and ensuring fragile peace. The unaddressed nature of Nigeria’s ungoverned spaces is a breeding ground for underdevelopment and the spread of non-state armed actors. It also engenders a disconnect between residents in the ungoverned spaces and the government.
Due to ungoverned spaces, government’s authority is weakened by the rise and dominance of non-state armed groups who provide an agenda-driven ideology that is often at variance with that of the Nigerian state. The northeast insurgency and banditry in the northwest and northcentral zones are clear cases.
Addressing Nigeria’s ungoverned spaces or preventing their spread must begin with proactive steps. Revitalising the local government administration is necessary for re-establishing government presence in ungoverned spaces.
Focusing on traditional institutions in Nigeria will further help revive local governance. Many Nigerian communities have traditional institutions that predate the Nigerian state. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and support such local structures and key into their local acceptance.
International development actors are already identifying and supporting local actors as part of their conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts in troubled communities in Nigeria. The Nigerian government should key into this initiative to support traditional institutions as the unofficial fourth tier of government. This will ensure a bottom-up approach to re-establishing government’s local presence and acceptance across the board.
Also, technical and material support provided to traditional institutions will impact kinetic and non-kinetic interventions in conflict-impacted communities.
As local stakeholders and potential change agents, traditional leaders will help to broker public trust and state-society security collaborations necessary for sustainable peace and stability.
This done, the web of governance will effectively spread tighter, especially to rural spaces and backwaters which are hard to reach from exalted citadels of power. Then, the vacuum which thugs and miscreants exploit would be largely curtailed, saving our children from the wilderness of terror.
