Elimination of bandits, collaborators will help actualise safe schools —el-Rufai

GOVERNOR of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai on Tuesday said the only way to deal with bandits and make schools safe is to eliminate all the bandits. He also noted that the Air Force should shell the forests where bandits are hiding. 

“Nobody living in the forest is innocent and we must kill them all. 

“The Chief of Air Staff has been doing well and this has led to a reduction in the activities of bandits in recent times,” he declared. 

He advocated the purchase of drones in addition to aircraft in the fight against insecurity. The Governor explained that another way to discourage banditry is to stop negotiating with them and paying ransom. 

“People ask if I won’t pay ransom if my child was kidnapped and I said that I won’t pay but that is a personal decision, which we do not all support. 

“So the only way to stop banditry is to kill them all!” 

In the same vein, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said that insecurity might further increase out-of-school children. 

According to her, even before COVID-19, Nigeria accounted for approximately 20 per cent of the global out-of-school population and with insecurity, it is likely to further escalate. Ahmed said though much progress had been made through the Safe School Initiative (SSI) SSI and other programmes, there is still a long way to go, and there is a need to re-imagine and institutionalise. 

“With an estimated 13 million children currently out of school in the country, we sit in the precipice of a socio-economic disaster and a full education crisis if we do not act in a coordinated manner to stop the current wave of systematic attacks on the fundamental rights of our children to a safe learning environment. 

“Parents are increasingly more nervous about sending their children, particularly their young girls to school, with some choosing to withdraw existing students. The time to act is now. “Today is an opportunity for us to come together to renew and re-imagine our country’s commitment to ensuring safe schools for our children. 

“This process must be government-led, it must be strategic, and it must result in a multi stakeholder framework and plan of action that ensures that any planning we do today is sustainably financed.” 

Meanwhile, at the Financing Safe Schools in Nigeria conference at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on Tuesday, Governor of Sokoto State, Mr Aminu Tambuwal appealed to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to ask states to begin repayment of $2.1 billion Budget Support facility. 

According to Tambuwal, deduction of the loans would further strangulate states and make them unable to finance education. 

The Minister of State for Education, Mr Emeka Nwajuba also called for the safety of the country.

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