The Nigeria Union of Teachers(NUT) has called on federal and state governments to find a lasting solution to the incessant armed attacks by criminal elements on schools nationwide.
The union also asked the Federal Government to, by all means, safely secure the freedom of the remaining 90 Chibok school girls and others including Leah Sharibuh, who are still in the captivity of Boko Harram terrorists and other criminal elements.
Speaking to Nigerian Tribune in an exclusive interview at the weekend, Dr Mike Ene, the Secretary-General of NUT, decried the increasing spate at which terrorists and bandits and other criminal elements are attacking schools and abducting students and teachers in the country, saying such a situation is totally unacceptable.
According to him, schools from primary to university levels have now become a soft target in Nigeria for bandits and kidnappers, seeing them as where to get cheap money.
He said the government now at all levels would need to wake up from their sleep and make the safety of students and teachers and other Nigerians and their property a priority.
He said it’s high time that the government declared a state of emergency in security in and around schools across the country.
He pointed out that it was unfortunate that Chibok school girls, for example, could still be in captivity of their abductors 10 years after they were forcefully taken away from their hostels.
He said aside the direct effect of such attacks and mass abduction would have on the kidnapped children and their parents, the situation is also increasing the number of out-of-school children, particularly in the northern states.
He declared that many parents nowadays especially in the Northern states known to be more troubled such as Kaduna, Borno, Katsina, Zamfara, Benue, Plateau, Adamawa and so forth do not want to enrol their children in schools again just because they are afraid those children may be kidnapped for ransom payment which they don’t have.
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Ene, however, suggested that the government should create community (and not state) policing to be able to effectively tame the menace, saying that will be the most effective way to guarantee the safety of people and their property anywhere they are.
He said people at the grassroots would be better policing their communities than outsiders, who may not be familiar to the terrains of their duty posts.
Similarly, the National President of National Parent-Teacher Association of Nigeria( NPAN), Haruna Danjuma, also in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, urged the Federal Government to invest meaningfully in the security architectures around schools.
He said it is only in a peaceful school environment that real learning and teaching can take place.
While also appealing to the Federal Government to secure the release of the remaining Chibok and Dapchi schools’ girls and the other individuals from their abductors, Danjuma said the government cannot pretend not to know that the high level of insecurity particularly in and around schools has taken a huge toll on education in the counyry.
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