Boko Haram Insurgency and the Underdevelopment of Girl- Child in Northeastern Nigeria: Implication for National Development

Abstract

In recent times, millions of girl-child in Northeastern schools in Nigeria are caught up in conflicts that resulted from Boko Haram to insecurity which affected their school attendance. This paper examines the effect of Boko Haram Insurgency on girl- child attendance in secondary schools in Northeastern Nigeria. The study purposively selects three states in north eastern Nigeria. The study employed primary and secondary data; 360 respondents were randomly selected. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression model was used to analyzed the data collected. The OLS regression model result shows that the R2 is as high as 0.680, this suggests that Boko Haram has influence on the girlchild attendance in secondary schools in the Northeastern Nigeria, therefore, the null hypothesis that Boko Haram insurgency has no significant effect on Girlchild attendance in Secondary Schools in Nigeria is rejected. This implies that Boko Haram insurgency has significant effects on Girl- child attendance in Secondary Schools in Nigeria. The study recommended that professional public private partnership (4 P’s) should provide all necessary support to teachers and students, who have been affected by violence in Northeast of Nigeria, this should include rehabilitation and resettlement for those who have been forced to flee to return for academic pursuit.