Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has stated that the Federal Government can protect schools from the recent trend that sees bandits abducting students in their hundreds from schools if it was ready to take the right steps.
The former presidential candidate of the PDP was reacting to a statement by the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, which indicated that the government could not secure every school in the country.
According to Atiku, securing schools in the affected states can be achieved. He advised that police officers currently engaged in non-essential guard duties for individuals should be reassigned to schools in the affected states.
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He said on Twitter, ‘The FG may think they cannot protect all schools, but in actual fact, they can. It is a matter of leadership priority. ‘Children are our greatest asset’.
‘If we reassign police officers currently engaged in non-essential guard duties for individuals to schools in the affected states, the object can be achieved.
‘Recent figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics reveal that Nigeria now has an all-time high unemployment rate of 33.2%, up from 8.4% in 2015.
‘Rather than think we cannot secure all our schools, let us kill two birds with one stone and massively recruit more police officers to provide the needed security.’
Atiku had early advised the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector following the latest abduction of students and teachers in Kaduna State.
He said, ‘With the latest Kaduna school abduction, I repeat my call for the FG to declare a state of emergency in the education sector and to post 24-hour armed guards at every school in the affected and neighbouring states. No expense must be spared to keep our schools safe.
‘With 13.5 million children, Nigeria is already the world headquarters for out-of-school kids. This can only make things worse. It behooves on us as a nation to act decisively and excise this cancer of school abductions from our polity with clinically precise policies.
‘We must also stop paying ransom at random. It is a short-term solution that will cause much long-term destruction. We must, as a nation, impose law and order now, or we will bequeath lawlessness and disorder to the next generation. And may God forbid that.’ He concluded.