‎Can Nomadic Education End Insecurity In Northern Nigeria?

By Aliyu Umar Aliyu
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NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: ‎When discussions about ending banditry and insecurity in Northern Nigeria arise, attention often turns to military offensives, intelligence gathering, surveillance technology, and the deployment of security personnel. While these measures remain important, the persistence of violent crimes across many parts of the North suggests that force alone may not be enough. Increasingly, experts are drawing attention to another factor that has received far less attention: education.
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‎At the centre of this conversation is the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), a federal institution headquartered in Kaduna. Established more than three decades ago to provide education for Nigeria’s nomadic populations, the Commission was envisioned as a bridge between marginalized pastoral communities and the Nigerian state.
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‎Today, however, as insecurity continues to plague many of the same communities it was created to serve, questions are being asked about whether the Commission has fulfilled its mandate and whether a revitalized nomadic education system could help address some of the root causes of banditry and violent extremism.
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‎The National Commission for Nomadic Education was established in 1989 by the administration of former military President General Ibrahim Babangida. The idea behind its creation was simple but profound. Millions of Nigerians engaged in pastoralism, fishing, and migrant farming lived largely outside the reach of conventional education because of their mobile lifestyles. Children moved with their families across vast distances in search of grazing land, fishing opportunities, or seasonal farming activities, making attendance at conventional schools almost impossible.
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‎Recognizing the danger of leaving such a significant segment of the population without access to education, the Federal Government established the Commission to design flexible learning systems capable of reaching these communities wherever they were. The Commission was mandated to formulate policies on nomadic education, establish and supervise schools, train teachers, conduct research, and promote literacy among nomadic populations while preserving their cultural identity and way of life.
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‎At the time, the initiative was widely regarded as one of the most innovative educational interventions in Africa. It acknowledged that equal access to education could not be achieved through a one-size-fits-all model and that special measures were needed to integrate historically excluded populations into national development.
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‎More than 35 years later, however, the realities on the ground present a mixed picture. The Commission has undoubtedly recorded notable achievements. Thousands of nomadic schools have been established across different parts of the country. Innovative learning models, including mobile classrooms and radio-based educational programmes, have been introduced. Teachers have been trained, literacy campaigns conducted, and awareness created about the importance of education among pastoral communities.
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‎In recent years, the Commission has intensified efforts to address one of Nigeria’s most persistent educational challenges through the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP), a special intervention designed to reintegrate out-of-school nomadic children into formal learning. The programme compresses the conventional six-year primary education cycle into three years, allowing children who have missed years of schooling to catch up and transition into mainstream education more quickly.
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‎The urgency of the initiative reflects the scale of the problem. Surveys conducted across six states and the Federal Capital Territory identified more than 61,000 out-of-school nomadic children, underscoring the magnitude of educational exclusion within pastoral communities. Working with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the National Mass Education Commission, the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the NCNE has been developing curricula, mapping vulnerable populations, and designing implementation strategies aimed at reversing decades of neglect.
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‎Speaking at the opening of a three-day capacity-building workshop on ABEP in Kaduna earlier this year, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, Professor Haruna Usman, described the situation as a national emergency.
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‎”Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children globally, and urgent intervention is imperative,” he said, emphasizing that educational exclusion remains one of the country’s greatest development challenges.
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‎The Federal Government has also signaled renewed commitment to the programme. During a virtual media briefing in Abuja on August 26, 2025, the Director of Basic Education in the Federal Ministry of Education, Folake Olatunji-David, unveiled a strategy aimed at integrating at least 50 percent of nomadic children into schools by 2027.
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‎”Out-of-school children remain one of the most disturbing challenges facing Nigeria,” she noted. “Nomadic children will not only gain access to basic education but also be equipped with practical skills.”
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‎Under the government’s projections, 20 percent of eligible nomadic children are expected to be enrolled through the intervention by 2026, with an additional 30 percent targeted by 2027.
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‎Beyond enrolment figures, NCNE officials argue that the success of the programme will depend on addressing cultural and social barriers, particularly those affecting girls’ education. At a capacity-building workshop in Kaduna on March 3, 2026, the Commission’s Director of Social Mobilisation and Women’s Development, Hajiya Halima Othman Yoman, challenged misconceptions that discourage female education in some communities.
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‎”Educating girls has a direct impact on family wellbeing, health, hygiene and child upbringing,” she said. “Islam encourages both males and females to seek knowledge.”
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‎Her remarks highlighted a broader reality: education is not simply about literacy. It is also about transforming attitudes, improving livelihoods, strengthening families, and building more resilient communities.
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‎Yet despite these interventions, the challenge remains enormous. Across many states in Northern Nigeria, particularly in the North-West, large numbers of nomadic children remain outside the formal education system. Insecurity itself has worsened the situation, leading to school closures, displacement of communities, and disruption of educational activities.
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‎The consequences of this educational deficit are becoming increasingly apparent.
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‎Many of the areas most affected by banditry today are communities characterized by high levels of illiteracy, poverty, social exclusion, and limited government presence. In such environments, young people often grow up without access to education, vocational skills, civic orientation, or meaningful economic opportunities. These conditions create fertile ground for criminal recruitment and exploitation.
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‎While it would be inaccurate to suggest that illiteracy alone causes banditry, there is little doubt that educational deprivation contributes to the cycle of poverty, marginalization, and hopelessness that criminal groups often exploit. Security analysts have repeatedly argued that the roots of insecurity in Northern Nigeria extend beyond law enforcement and include social, economic, and developmental failures that have accumulated over decades.
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‎Former military leaders, security experts, and development practitioners have consistently emphasized that military operations can suppress criminal activities but cannot permanently eliminate the conditions that produce them. Sustainable peace requires addressing the factors that make criminality attractive or inevitable for vulnerable populations.
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‎This is where the National Commission for Nomadic Education becomes particularly relevant.
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‎Education is more than learning how to read and write. It is a tool for social integration, economic empowerment, civic participation, and conflict resolution. An educated young person is more likely to understand the benefits of peaceful coexistence, less susceptible to manipulation by criminal elements, and better positioned to pursue legitimate means of livelihood.
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‎For pastoral communities, education can also help reduce tensions that often arise between herders and farmers. Through literacy, awareness programmes, and modern livestock management training, communities can acquire skills that improve productivity while minimizing conflicts over land and resources. Education creates channels for dialogue, understanding, and cooperation where suspicion and hostility previously existed.
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‎Many stakeholders believe that if the Commission had received stronger political support and adequate funding over the years, its impact could have been significantly greater. Community leaders across the North have repeatedly called for expanded access to schools in remote settlements. Traditional rulers have stressed the importance of reaching young people before they become vulnerable to criminal influences. Education advocates argue that every child enrolled in school represents one less potential recruit for criminal networks.
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‎There is also growing recognition that the Commission’s mandate should evolve to reflect current realities. Beyond basic literacy, nomadic education programmes should incorporate vocational training, entrepreneurship, digital literacy, peacebuilding, and civic education. Such an approach would equip young people not only with knowledge but also with practical skills capable of improving their economic prospects.
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‎Technology offers further opportunities. Solar-powered digital learning centres, radio education, mobile teaching units, and community learning hubs could significantly expand access to education in hard-to-reach areas. Combined with improved infrastructure, healthcare services, water facilities, and rural development initiatives, such interventions could transform communities that have long felt abandoned by the state.
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‎The experience of other countries with large pastoral populations demonstrates that mobility does not have to be a barrier to education. With sufficient political will, innovative educational models can successfully reach nomadic communities while respecting their lifestyles and traditions.
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‎For Nigeria, the implications are clear.
‎Banditry cannot be defeated solely through military deployments. Neither can peace be achieved by security operations alone. Lasting security requires building communities where young people see opportunities rather than desperation, where government presence is visible through schools and social services, and where education serves as a pathway to inclusion rather than a privilege available only to settled populations.

‎The National Commission for Nomadic Education was created to address exactly this challenge. Recent initiatives such as the Accelerated Basic Education Programme suggest that the institution is attempting to reposition itself and respond to emerging realities. However, the scale of the insecurity challenge demands far greater investment, stronger political commitment, and closer collaboration between education, security, and development agencies.
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‎As Nigeria searches for enduring solutions to the insecurity crisis, policymakers may need to look beyond the battlefield and revisit the vision that inspired the establishment of the Kaduna-based Commission in 1989. More than three decades later, that vision remains as relevant as ever.
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‎The fight against banditry may ultimately require more classrooms than combat vehicles, more teachers than troops, and more investment in human development than in emergency responses. Strengthening nomadic education will not eliminate insecurity overnight, but it could help address one of the conditions that allow it to flourish.
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‎In a region yearning for peace, the National Commission for Nomadic Education may well be one of Nigeria’s most overlooked instruments for building a safer, more inclusive, and more prosperous future.

Aliyu Umar, is a Public Affairs Analyst and can be reached via aliyuumar721@gmail.com