A former lawmaker, representing Kaduna Central, Sen. Shehu Sani, has called for adequate security around schools in the country to check the spate of kidnapping.
Sani told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, that the threat on the country’s education sector would lead to a huge setback if not nipped in the bud.
He expressed concern that, while the sector was yet to come to terms with the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the kidnapping and killing of school children was taking a worrisome dimension.
According to him, the attacks on schools are not only threatening the present state of the economy but the future of the country.
“Attacks on schools are a dangerous trend, from Chibok to Dapchi to Kankara to Kagara to Jangidi to Forest College of Forestry and Greenfield University among others.
“You can see how the future of our country is being threatened, our educational system progressively destroyed by the activities of bandits.
“If we do not wake up from our slumber and tackle this issue, it will not only be destroying our present but our future.
“This is because it will be impossible for parents to send their wards to school when the lives of their children are not safe.
“We need to secure our educational facilities and the lives of our children,” he said.
He called on security agencies to take advantage of technology to prosecute insurgency and other security threats in the country.
He said that for as long as Nigeria was not safe, the security of countries around it would also be threatened.
He added that “insecurity in Nigeria is a threat to security in the West African Sub-region and the whole world.”
On calls for foreign aid to fight insurgency, Sani said it should be limited to training and provision of equipment.
He expressed reservation with having a permanent foreign military base in the continent, saying the aftermath might be disastrous.
On factors responsible for the level of insecurity in the country, the former lawmaker noted that it was as a result of things that were not put in place or wrongly done in the past.
He further identified poverty and poor governance as major contributors to the spate of insecurity in the country, pointing out that, “the gap between the rich and the poor is so wide and is continuously widening.
“A few people have wealth that they do not need and a large number of people are angling for the basics to survive.
“Nigeria at independence was a country of 45 million people, 60 years after we have a nation of more than 211 million people.
“So, when you do not have adequate infrastructure to take care of an expanding population and vision for the future, you experience what we are witnessing today.”
He, however, expressed optimism that Nigeria would get out of the woods.
“Every well-meaning Nigerian must be concerned about the state of the nation today.
“The violence going on in Nigeria is a threat to the peace and unity of the country. Lives are being lost and so many others have been displaced.
“However, at a time like this, history calls on Nigerians to unite and defeat the monster that is threatening our unity as a country and our future as a people.
“This is not the time for partisanship. This is not the time for sectional, political, ethnic, or religious differences.
“This is the time for the country to come together. We should be united to confront this common enemy,” he said.
Sani, who kicked against calls for breakup said, “I do not believe that Nigeria will break up. I am an incurable optimist. I am opposed to separatist groups from any part of the country.
“We will continue to fight anything that will divide Nigeria. Those of us who believe in Nigeria are in the majority.
“If the country has problems, we should confront it, but not to break the country.”
He congratulated Nigerian workers on the 2021 Workers Day, calling for improved condition of service for them.
He said that a lot of workers were living in poverty and the most hostile environment, which made honesty at work difficult. (NAN)
