SCI Calls for Adequate Security to Tackle Kidnapping in Schools

By Francis Sardauna

As the world celebrates International Children’s Day, a non-governmental organisation, Save the Children International (SCI), has called on the federal and state governments to provide adequate security around schools in the country to checkmate the spate of kidnapping and other nefarious activities against school children.

The organisation expressed concern that while the education sector is yet to come to terms with the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the kidnapping and killing of school children are taking a worrisome dimension in the country.

The Katsina State Community Engagement and Advocacy Coordinator of SCI, Murjanatu Kabir, who made the call Thursday at an event in Katsina to commemorate the 2021 Children’s Day, said attacks on schools are threatening the future of the Nigerian child and the education sector.

The event, organised by SCI through its Reaching and Empowering Adolescents to make informed Choices for their Health (REACH) and Towards Ending Child Marriage (TECM) projects funded by Global Affairs Canada and Netherland in collaboration with the Katsina State government, drew pupils and students across the state.

Kabir maintained that there is need for government at all levels to take necessary actions to curtail the abduction of school children, adding that frequent kidnapping of students undermines the right to education of the affected children.

According to her, “As we celebrate this year’s International Children’s Day, I urge government at all levels to secure our educational facilities and the lives of our children by providing adequate security in schools across the country.

“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.”

She admonished the Katsina State Government and other critical stakeholders to put machinery in motion to ensure speedy implementation of the Child Protection Law in order to protect children’s rights and address abuses against them in the state.

In her remarks, the wife of the Katsina State Governor, Dr. Hadiza Bello Masari, advised children in the state to shun cultism, drugs and other vices that are capable of undermining their future.

She said: “You are our future leaders, don’t engage in drug abuse, cultism and other social vices because these factors will destroy both your present and future. I will continue to support children in the state in order to achieve their goals in life.”

On her part, the Special Adviser to the state government on Girl Child Education and Child Development, Hajiya Amina Dauda, said government was doing everything humanly possible to strengthen the capacity of parents in the state to protect their children against any form of violent and exploitation.

Speaking earlier, the Speaker of the state Children’s Parliament, Ibrahim Maharazu, lamented the cases of sexual molestation of children by adults in the state, calling for the implementation of the state’s child protection law to address the menace.