By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, on Tuesday in Minna, the state capital, said the implementation of the National Campaign on Out-of School Chil"dren in the state will not be possible if the Armed Bandits, Boko-Haram and ISWAP members hibernating in seven Local Government Areas of the state are not dealt with.
Another reason why there are many out of school children in Niger state, Bello explained, is the size of Niger state in terms of landmass, which is close to 9 million kilometres. And for the children to walk between 5 to 6 kilometres before getting to school, is a near impossibility.
Governor Bello made the declaration in a remark at the formal launching of the, National Campaign on Out of School Children for the six geo-political zones which took place at Government House, Minna, and organized by the Federal Ministry of Education in Collaboration with the Niger State Ministry of Education.
According to him, “There are far more problems than the out of school children campaign for the children to go back to school. That is why the federal government has to come in to secure the state before we can talk about mobilizing the children back to school”.
Governor Sani Bello bared it all on the frustrations the state is facing due to insecurity and its attendant consequences on the socio-economic wellbeing of Niger state including accessing quality and affordable education. He said the programme can only work if schools are built at trekeable distances from the school children's homes.
Cases of abuses including rape by armed bandits has become rampant in rural communities, Bello said, adding that nothing about the scheme will work except the federal government flushes out criminal elements that have taken over 7 out of the 25 local government areas.
“Security challenges needed to be addressed first. I think there are lots of work yet to be done if indeed we are committed to ending out of school children as a government. If we don't resolve issues of insecurity, it will only be a dream”, governor Bello stated
Governor Bello told the gathering that currently, seven local government areas are under siege by combined forces of armed bandits, Boko-Haram and ISWAP and many of the communities as a result, have been deserted. He also said for the affected people of the communities, taking their children to school is the last thing they are thinking about now.
“It is important that the federal government deploy resources to address insecurity, else we can't end out of school children when we have not been able to secure lives and properties. We will just be telling lies to ourselves.
“What we should be thinking of as a government is to first ensure that the people are comfortable in their homes and that their children are safe before talking about taking them to school. Whatever program we must do to address out of school children, we must look at the security situation in their environment”.
Alternatively, Governor Bello argued that “To encourage people to take their children to school, we must build schools closer to the communities and address the security situation. If we do not do these, we can sit down here and do propaganda and talk, but it is not realistic.
“To address the security challenge, we must invest huge sum of money to ensure that no child is left behind in ensuring they are captured in the scheme”.
The Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, had earlier said that Niger state is the focal point for the out of school programme by the federal government hence the need for stakeholders to check the number of children out of school in the state.
Nwajiuba said, “Pandemic and insecurity has skyrocketed the number of out of school children and that is why we are trying to encourage formal and non-formal education to reduce illiteracy to the barest minimal because no nation can achieve desired growth and development when majority of their productive population are illiterates”.
In her welcome address, Niger State Commissioner of Education, Hajiya Hanatu Jubril Salihu, disclosed that the state has a total of, 298, 192 out of school children for basic education out of which 127, 342 are girls while 161,750 boys. NNL.
