After senior students at Beautiful Beginning Academy, Apo in the Federal Capital Territory chained and assaulted a male student named, Imtiyas, netizens on social media have raised a storm condemning the act and calling for stringent measures by government at various levels to supervise the running of private boarding schools in the country and the enactment of laws to punish bullying.
In a viral video circulating on social media platforms, Imtiyas, an SS 11 student is shown being forced to lie down wearing his trousers and shirtless, while he was surrounded by SS 111 students, who wound a chain round his neck, locked the chain with a padlock and all the while hurling insults at him. One of the students who was speaking in Hausa can be heard telling another student to drag the chain, even as Imtiyas was pleading with his tormentors, warning that he could die in the process of his bullying.
Upon the emergence of the video, many netizens appalled by the level of bullying displayed by the senior students are urging for alternatives like private day schools where kids can go home every day, since private boarding schools are now becoming notorious for indiscipline and invariably, create situations that are conducive for bullying, coupled with the lack of monitoring by school authorities and supervision by the relevant government departments.
One social media user @Ceecee_Yagarta on his X account, said that “I wanted to type how can you be wicked at this age, then I remembered my secondary school days. Reason why I swore none of my kids will attend boarding school.” His sentiment was re-echoed by @Phazphaz1, who advised parents thus, “stop keeping your children in boarding schools. Boarding houses are death traps. It’s a rot that would never go away in the education sector and it becomes more vicious as time goes by.”
However, some other X users called for the prosecution of the SS111 students caught in the video and all those involved in the bullying incident. They demanded for the authorities to probe the incident and unveil a code of conduct for private schools to discourage bullying. @Ceecee_Jaykings said: “I thought I saw the height of wickedness in my own time with punishments like cutting fields, crawling on your knees up the stairs and riding bike on air… These breed of high school students are just demonic and they film this while doing it. They should all be sent to juvenile prisons.”
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User @Wixarab19 called on the government to do something about the situation, saying that “the ministry of education has to step in. There should be no seniority in schools. Let kids be kids and live with mutual respect. No child should have this much power over another. It didn’t make sense to me as a junior student. It didn’t make sense to me as a senior student.”
Similarly, @Justmacdv1 responded, by saying “a country that doesn’t value life when it doesn’t have to do with their own but look away. I heard the school that killed a toddler and which made the mother of the victim to die of high blood pressure is still operating till today. What’s the ministry of education doing.”
Also responding, @Yanfiey said: “The ministry of education will not step in. We all know that is the reality. There have been many cases similar to this over the past three years in various secondary schools here in Nigeria and nothing happened. No intervention whatsoever from the ministry of education.”
Bullying and harassment stories of secondary school students are becoming more common place. Some of the victims endure physical and mental anguish, while others have died in the process.
However, other social media users in other to curb the spread bullying in schools are encouraging parents to teaching their children self- defense and self-control. @IdafumV stated: “Parents stop raising weaklings. The society is not friendly. Society can’t be nice to you because you are a nice person. Raise your children with every moral, know when to serve peace and know when to serve violence when it is a time to fight back. Speaking from experience.” In the opinion of @ Chrismamza, “parents better start taking matters into their own hands. Let there be carnage. If the school’s administration refuses to punish and sanctions the bullies perpetrating these evil acts, then they’re indirectly telling the victims that they cannot get justice.”
@ Chimauzobi advised parents to run background checks on schools before enrolling their children in such schools. He recounted that “I attended a boarding school and it wasn’t like this. If you must send your kids to a boarding school, I think it’s best to speak with a junior student from the school to understand how fellow students treat each other.”
The fate of late Sylvester Oromoni of Dowen College, Lagos, Don Davies of Deeper Life High School, Uyo, who was bullied physically and sexually, Yahaya Aliyu of Government Secondary School, Kwali, who was flogged to death by a teacher and Karen-Happuch Akpagherti of Premiere Academy, Abuja, are some of the ugly incidents that have occurred in the nation’s secondary schools.
