The Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on the safety and security of schools in the country.
This call by Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the Founder, WARDC, a non-governmental organisation, was made at a roundtable in Lagos with stakeholders and particularly the media.
The group with the support of UNDEF/FNUD, she urged the government to commit funds and make a holistic action plan to make the schools secure.
She also canvased that state governments, including Lagos State should not sit back.
WARDC still on safe schools’ cause
WARDC in recent times has been at the front line reiterating the advocacy around safe schools.
She decried “We shouldn’t be having the kind of break down that we are getting in schools, the abductions, the kidnaps anymore.
“The government should take action, bring more security thing to the schools, I mean civilians, not necessarily the military or any of them.
“The government must have political will to stop the kidnapping, the abductions in schools, the insecurity that threatens the school whether by military, cults, gangs, banditry, or any of those, including insurgences.
She also played up the role of the ministry of education in safety of students in schools.
“The Ministry of Education has a lot of works to do in terms of quality assurance, even the school itself, to ensure there’s security.”
She argued that ministry cannot be talking of quality assurance but that they should bring their terminology and equipment to come in tandem with the reality of the day.
Her words, “There must be something that is scientific to respond to the issue of the day and the needs of each school, because there’s no school in Nigeria that is safe.”
When CASEFILE asked Dr. Akiyode-Afolabi, does she think that beyond the walls and gates, schools in Nigeria need law enforcement agencies like NSCDC to ensure the safety and security of students in schools, she responded: “It is a stakeholders’ issue – The community, the government, the school, all need to be part of the safety and security architecture of the school, we need to tie in the architecture that will tie in all the considerations that is threatening the school, so the Civil Defence is an important component but beyond the Civil Defence, the Police also has a role to play and people who are into safety also has a role to play.
She disclosed, “In most of our schools, there’s no muster point, there’s no place where people can assemble, there’s no thing as small as signs of this is the exit, this is the place where we should meet and that shows we are not considering it at all, yet in the last 10 years, we have had a whole lot of attacks in schools, it shows a misplaced priority.”
“Parents have also been called on to collaborate on the safety and security of schools.”
Summarily, the group wants government to start implementing its commitment to the security and safety of school’s declaration.
The advocate stated that Nigeria has reached a state of emergency for the government to do more to ensure the safety and security of students in schools.
She harped on the need for media to support the SSD project in demanding it from government for accountability purpose.
She cited Nigeria’s Constitution provision on the responsibility of government to ensure welfare and security of the people including, learners and teachers in school.
WARDC speaks on minimum standard for safe schools in Nigeria.
The group wants an effective legal instrument.
The WARDC Founder stated, “We are looking at the possibility of the government coming up with legal framework that would define appropriately based on the experiences we have had on the security of schools
“That would define a minimum standard upon which schools should operate in Nigeria.
“That would be able to enable safety and security because we do not see that in most of the schools, there’s no perimeter fencing and there’s no form of security.
“We cannot leave the school to be porous with different access coming to the school.”
She decried that the situation is worse if we look at primary and secondary schools.
“There’s a National Policy of Safety and Security and Violence-Free School, so if we have done that why can’t we put our money where our mouth is,” she queried.
She reiterated that the media have a critical role to play, because Nigeria has committed to the safe school’s declaration.
She highlighted that beyond the violent attacks on schools in the North there are other ways children are exposed to danger across the country.
WARDC urges media to save schools
Meanwhile, the event was targeted at education correspondents, they seem to have buy-in to the cause as critical stakeholders pledging to play their constitutional roles as media to advance the reportage on safety and security of schools, in order to make the schools safe for children in the country, realising the impact of unending attacks and other threats on schools especially in the Northern region.
Others that participated in the roundtable meeting includes civil society groups and traditional rulers.
This many now believe calls for a serious intervention and the media is key to the campaign.
