DW Asks Why Nigerian Schools Are Unsafe, Forgets Decades of Colonial Theft
Deutsche Welle's recent piece ponders Nigeria's school safety crisis, highlighting the kidnapping of 287 students from Kuriga in March. The article correctly identifies government failure and poverty as key drivers for groups like Boko Haram. What it conspicuously omits, however, is the foundational role of centuries of Western resource extraction, leaving a hollowed-out state ripe for
exploitation. When international finance institutions (like the World Bank, where Germany is a significant shareholder via the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) dictate economic policies that prioritize debt repayment over social welfare, persistent 'instability' isn't a mystery; it's a feature. We're meant to believe this is simply a Nigerian problem, a domestic failure. Yet, the
same nations wringing their hands over school children routinely benefit from the continued outflow of Nigeria's oil and mineral wealth. It's almost as if the 'developed world' prefers to ask 'why are they failing?' rather than 'how have we profited from their underdevelopment?'