Banditry cripples education in Sokoto; historic schools deserted, students relocated
SKAiF NewsNG SNN
By Musa Ubandawaki, SOKOTO
In a reminder of the devastating reach of banditry, Sokoto State has been forced to shut down and relocate some of its most historic schools, abandoning once vibrant learning centres in the grip of terror.
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At the heart of this tragedy is Gamji Girls Science Secondary School, Rabah, the only senior secondary school in the birthplace of the late Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto. Once the pride of Rabah, the school now lies deserted, its classrooms silenced by fear.
The Rabah institution is not alone. Government Secondary School, Tureta, Government Girls Secondary School, Illela, Government Girls Secondary School, Bodinga, Government Technical College, Goronyo and Government Secondary School, Tangaza have all been uprooted from their permanent sites and relocated to Sokoto metropolis after relentless attacks made their host communities unsafe.
This mass displacement has disrupted the lives of thousands of students and teachers. Overcrowded facilities in Sokoto now struggle to accommodate them, while parents mourn the collapse of their communities’ educational and cultural identity.
The harshest blow came in Gudu Local Government, where the multi-million naira Government Science Secondary School, Balle was shut down even before it could take off. Built with state-of-the art facilities to serve a long neglected area, the school was abandoned after suspected bandits murdered the District Head, the Magajin Garin Balle.
The brutal assassination of the traditional ruler shocked the state and symbolized the deepening stranglehold of insecurity. The Science Secondary School at Balle now stands as a ghost structure locked, unused, and a painful monument to shattered dreams.
Today, Gudu Local Government remains the only council area in Nigeria without a single functional secondary school.
Sokoto State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Professor Abubakar Ala, admitted that the government is under immense pressure.
“We are studying and analyzing the security situation so as not to endanger the lives of our students and staff,” he explained, stressing that relocation was the only option left.
While Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s administration insists that plans are underway to return the schools to their permanent sites, the reality on ground tells a different story. The intensity of insecurity across the state makes any immediate return impossible.
For now, the Sokoto State Government is left fire-fighting balancing the sacred duty of protecting lives with the painful reality of abandoning historic institutions to terrorists. Each relocation is a compromise, dictated by fear and survival rather than development.
Educationists have warned that the long term effects could be catastrophic.
Students from rural backgrounds are now cut off from easy access to schooling, while already traumatized families face the impossible task of sending children to distant urban centers.
The closure of schools like Gamji Girls in Rabah and Science Secondary School, Balle in Gudu is not just an educational setback, it is an attack on the very legacy of visionaries like Sir Ahmadu Bello, who believed that education was the foundation of unity and progress in Northern Nigeria.
A displaced teacher now serving in Sokoto metropolis after fleeing his community, names withheld, put it bluntly: “When schools die, the future dies. Bandits are not just killing people; they are killing hope.”
Unless insecurity is crushed with decisive action, Sokoto risks raising a generation stripped not only of education but also of the right to dream.
The proud tradition of learning that once defined the state is being dismantled brick by brick, school by school, under the shadow of terror.
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