Kidnapping: PDP knocks APC, FG over closing of schools

• Advises on funding of national policy on safety, security and violence

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has tasked the All Progressives Congress -led federal government to immediately fund and implement the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools anchored on community intelligence and quick security response rather than closing schools in parts of the country because of kidnapping.

The party said this at a press conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, NPS, Mr Ini Ememobong in Abuja on Sunday.

The leading opposition party reasoned that by funding and implementing the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools anchored on community intelligence and quick security, such will help in anticipating and contending with attacks on schools.

The PDP categorically declared that insecurity in schools will be a big disincentivisation for education in the country, especially in Northern Nigeria.

The party further urged the government to develop a comprehensive plan to combat the issue, instead of resorting to a simplistic approach of closing schools in a bid to prevent further kidnappings and to score cheap political points.

According to Ememobong, a lawyer former Commissioner in Akwa Ibom state, “We are aware that the closure of schools in these areas is already being implemented by some state governments and is currently being contemplated by the Federal Government.

“We warn that this closure, if undertaken, like many of this administration’s quick-fix approaches to serious governance issues, will amount to a complete surrender to terrorists, whose sole aim is to shut down schools and prevent children from obtaining formal education, which they declare forbidden.

“If the schools are closed, the goal of the terrorists would have been inadvertently achieved.

“Rather, we urge the government to develop a comprehensive plan to combat the issue, instead of resorting to a simplistic approach of closing schools in a bid to prevent further kidnappings and to score cheap political points, quite characteristic of this administration. “This alarm is crucial because, a closure of schools will certainly exacerbate the already challenging educational situation in Northern Nigeria, where, according to UNICEF, the majority of the 18.3 million out-of-school children (10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the secondary level) in Nigeria reside.

“This data not only paints a grim picture but also mirrors the exact situation in Nigeria.

“The series of attacks and kidnappings in different states within a week, is indicative of the alarming insecurity that has become the contemporary live experience and new reality of Nigerians under the APC-led Bola Tinubu government.

 “More troubling is the fact that when these unfortunate incidents happen, the administration’s response is usually lacklustre and unempathetic.

“For example, instead of the President visiting Kebbi and Niger States to meet and sympathise with the parents of the children who are in captivity, and to address the security personnel there, he merely directed the Minister of State for Defence to relocate to Kebbi.

 “A juxtaposition of the contingents sent to the US Congress and the G-20 meeting with Matawalle’s lone envoy, exposes the levity with which the presidency treats this matter.

“This reaction is most insensitive and dismissive of the gravity of the problem by the APC-led Federal Government.

“We charge the federal government to immediately fund and implement the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-Free Schools anchored on community intelligence and quick security response, capable of anticipating and contending with attacks on schools.

“Insecurity in schools will be a big disincentivisation for education in the country, especially in Northern Nigeria.

 We again remind the President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the entire APC-led administration that the security of lives and property is the primary function of any government.

“At any time, government is unwilling, unable, or incapable of executing this primary role, such a government, must either ask for help (locally or internationally) or honourably resign, if it is sincere and responsible”, he stated.