Princess Sylvia Foundation Commemorates International Day for Victims of Enforced disappearance.

Over the years,the number of missing persons in the world and precisely Nigeria has been on an outrageous increase and has continued to bring fear and terror to the hearts of citizens.

Reasons for these disappearances cannot be solely nailed to one cause as it ranges from escape from domestic violence, victims of kidnapping or abduction, disappearance during military action amongst others.

Nigeria has overtime been tagged a kidnap zone recording a total of 3,000 missing persons in just the first quarter of 2021 and 571 in January of 2022.

Although the United States of America as recorded by the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) has the highest number of missing persons with a total of 521,705 in 2021 but Nigeria on the other hand as recorded by the International Crime Information Center (ICIC) has the highest number of missing persons ever recorded by the organization.

Despite these numerous cases in Nigeria,some very peculiar instances stands out. One of which is the case of the 276 chibok female students that were abducted in a Government Girls Secondary school in 2014 and nine years after this sad occurrence, the whereabout of 98 of these girls still remain unknown..

Another striking case was the abduction of 73 students in another school in the year 2021. These series prompted other attacks such as the ones in Kankara, Jangebe, Damishi Kaduna resulting to the closure of over 600 schools in the North.

The unfortunate attacks on these educational facilities and in general the educational sector of this country birthed this statement by the then Director General, Amnesty International Osai Ojigho and I quote!

“No child should go through what children are going through now in Nigeria. Education should not be a matter of life and death for anyone. Nigeria is failing children once again in a horrifying manner”

It is however relevant to say that these instances only reflect the survey of a particular section of the country not venturing into the abduction of individuals known and unknown.

Hence, as we commemorate this year’s celebration,we are called to examine the countless number that have gone missing those of which some remain dead or alive and the untold pain these losses has brought on both family and country,to be hopeful for the return of others and to most importantly call for a more proactive measure in prevention and recovery as the life of every individual is of great essence and as such priority should be doubled in safeguarding it.