( CNN ) -- As a Nigerian , and as somebody who has been blessed with a top-tier education , the idea that teenage girls could be snatched from their school in northeastern Nigeria is particularly chilling . I was born and raised in England but spent some of my childhood in Enugu , in the southeastern part of Nigeria . I studied at Oxford University and Columbia University , and my thirst for knowledge made journalism a natural choice . I would n't be working as a CNN reporter today if it was n't for the fact that my parents fled Nigeria during the Biafra War and my mother , despite losing my father in a car accident , sacrificed everything to send me to good schools in England . Girls in Chibok , Nigeria , now have to decide between staying alive and getting an education . Aside from the nearly 300 school girls who were kidnapped in April , 56 boys at a boarding school were also recently killed . This is particularly heart-wrenching because I 've always believed education is freedom , especially for children in northeastern Nigeria whose education will be the only chance they have at eventually escaping poverty like my parents did . However , the unyielding presence of Boko Haram has meant that education has become a choice between life and death . And parents , who are naturally more concerned about their children living to see another day than anything else , have stopped sending their children to school . Kidnappings are not just limited to Boko Haram 's antics in the northern part of Nigeria but are widespread throughout the country . Every Christmas , Nigerians who live in the Western world often travel back to Nigeria for the holidays . The sheer presence of so many foreigners often means an sharp uptick in the number of ransom kidnappings . Whenever I return to Nigeria , I follow sharp instructions from my mother not to tell too many people I 'm coming back , not to announce my arrival ahead of time , and not too stay in one place for too long . We 've become even more cautious after my uncle was kidnapped three years ago . He was living between London and Dublin at the time and returned to Nigeria to visit family . One evening , as he was pulling into my grandmother 's compound , kidnappers sneaked in behind him on foot . They knocked on the window to his car , and as soon as he rolled down the windows , they hit him over the head , took over his vehicle and drove him five hours through the night . It was by miracle that the car they used broke down . The kidnappers -- and my uncle -- were were stranded . They panicked and let him go . For a very long time , he was afraid to ever go back to Nigeria . When my uncle shares that story , people are n't necessarily as shocked as you might expect . The first thing people ask him is not , `` Oh my goodness , you were kidnapped ? '' but rather `` Who did you tell you were coming back to Nigeria ? '' This is a country where no one is immune from the rife practice of hostage taking and if you travel to Nigeria , the onus is on you to stay safe . If the Nigerian President 's cousin can be kidnapped and the finance minister 's mother can be held hostage , then anyone else can be , too . For that reason , I 've always tried to avoid traveling back to Nigeria alone , especially during Christmas . I simply wo n't do it . And when I am there , the idea of going out after dusk alone is inconceivable . Every time my mother tells me , `` You need to go to Nigeria this year , '' I often look for any excuse to get out of it . It pains me to admit that because I cherish my memories of going to school in Nigeria and the chances of anything happening to me -- though possible -- I hope are unlikely . Although I 'm not in Nigeria physically right now , the story about these girls has haunted me from day one . Whenever I read headlines about the missing schoolgirls , there 's always this feeling of guilt that hovers over me . It 's hugely unfair that I live comfortably in a first world country , in a nation that affords me the freedoms and luxuries that I ca n't imagine living without and those girls , whose only wish is to get an education , have to live in a constant state of fear . That 's their life every single day , and had my parents not made the sacrifices they did , that could easily have been my life too . My heart bleeds for them .
Zain Asher : Girls in Nigeria `` now have to decide between staying alive and getting an education or going back home. Her uncle was kidnapped three years ago .