 The increase in school abductions in Northwest Nigeria is putting the future of young people at risk. Schools are being shut by state governments and where they aren't shut, parents are afraid to let their children go to school. The situation could lead to an increase in the number of out-of-school children in the country, which is already estimated to be 13.2 million, the highest in the world. Yusuf Lado had yet to learn to read or write when his school closed for fear of attacks by bandits. The seven-year-old has no longer thinking of becoming a doctor and is now training to be a welder. No fewer than 10 schools in Nigeria have been heed by armed groups since December with mass abductions taking place. The humanitarian agency has warned that the rise in school kidnappings is disrupting the education of hundreds of thousands of children. The situation in education in Nigeria is probably at its biggest crisis point at the moment. There are in the region of 13.2 million children out of school in total, which is the highest number globally, and it really is of concern that this has become a money-spinning exercise where schools have become an easy target for kidnappers and resources have become available to pay the kidnappers off. Yusuf and Hall's siblings have now been pulled out of school and his family has fled to village. The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, estimates that more than 1,000 schools are closed across northwest Nigeria. By Kedunas State Education Commissioner Shiro Mohamedov, he says his work-hinter keeps schools open. We have the local vigilante, the hunters around each community or around each institution that are helping the community to keep surveillance around the environment and give feedback to the community and then in turn give feedback to the security agencies. Kedunas State or the 13 schools to close on Monday after gunmen kidnapped about 150 students at Bessel Baptist High School. And there's the fifth of such incidents in the state this year. Public Affairs Analyst Sholakuti is joining us from the United Kingdom to take a look at this very German issue. Hello Sholakuti. Good evening and thanks for having me. Good evening and welcome. We're happy to have you. Now what's your take on the targeting of schools by armed groups? Well I think this issue of targeting schools started I think pre-2015, we all know. But at the time we were made to believe that it was Boko Haram targeting these schools because one of the things Boko Haram said was that they didn't want, they thought Western education was haram. So we assumed it was Boko Haram but increasingly we're seeing even bandits or I think the authorities were bandits now, also targeting schools and kidnapping children in large numbers. And I think it's a very worrying dimension. If Kedunas taking most of the schools we will be closed down in those states where there's unrest. A lot of them are already closed down. Yes I heard that in Kaduna for instance 13 schools were told to close down. It means those children are sitting at home doing nothing. We already know that the North has obviously a high number of out-of-school children and you know it's just very worrying and it seems like the government is not really doing anything about it. I also think that it's a bit funny because we have a lot of money pwned into the sales schools initiative and we're not seeing any results from that. Well how best can Nigeria manage its growing out of school human resources so the country doesn't implode? I think you know the first thing we need to do is make sure there's some security especially in those northern states and the children downstairs still seem to mind to go to school okay, boarding houses are still open and all of that but it's just a matter of time before these things spread down south. So it's very important that we get the security situation right first because the truth is that you can't, nobody, you wouldn't send your children, I wouldn't send my children to school if I knew that there was a chance of them being kidnapped by terrorists. Now the impact of this on education is glaring, it's obvious to everyone but what are the impact of this on Nigeria's economy, the inability of Nigeria's children to go to school? Yeah I think it's the same thing, I don't even want to talk about the economy but obviously some of these schools that have been shut down are private schools and obviously that means that people are going to be able to work but the first thing we need to find is the resolution to the matters going on in that part of the country, you know we cannot continue to allow children to be kidnapped from schools on a nearly weekly basis, I mean it's just unacceptable. What's your take on the negotiations with bandits who have sort of made it their daily source of living to kidnap children and then go for negotiation with governments and then there is this, if you like confusion about whether the state government should negotiate with these bandits to release the children or do not negotiate with bandits, how does that sit with you? Look from a security perspective I mean we are always told you know governments should not negotiate with terrorists or people should not negotiate with terrorists because what would happen then is that once you negotiate with them and you give them some money whatever it is they want then they will see an opportunity to do it again and ask for something else. So I understand from that point of view the question I always ask myself if my child was one of the children kidnapped would I negotiate with these guys and the answer is yes I would you know no matter if anybody likes they can send me to jail or whatever but if my child was kidnapped I would negotiate with them and I would give them whatever it is I could afford to give them. Now word on the situation how do you see this panning out in the nearest future do you see any light at the end of the tunnel or do you see us continuing in this trend for how long? I think what really you know I'm a bit puzzled because the cabinet state of all states is now becoming so like a hotbed for this kidnapping and I find it a bit difficult to you know to comprehend because the governor of cabinet states is a tough talking guy, Nazir el-Rufai, he has said he's not going to negotiate with terrorists instead he's going to fight with them but I don't see that actually developing into something that is working but I don't see the reflection of that because it's almost as if the next with the bandits are going to do the same thing again because he's daring them so I think there has to be another approach to this situation where there's some sort of impasse between the bandits and the government because if this doesn't happen soon I mean some of these children will start to suffer fatalities and we don't want that to happen and I think it's just giving the bandits the courage to be able to do more. There's no point boasting about shooting down bandits if you can't do it because at the end of the day you're endangering more lives and it doesn't make any sense. Well thank you so much Mr. Shalakuti for your time and insight on this subject. Thank you for having me.