Improved Nomadic Education Will Curb Banditry, Kidnapping, Says Bauchi Commissioner

Segun Awofadeji

Bauchi State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Aliyu Tilde has argued that improving the nomadic education system will curb banditry in the country.

In a statement he issued shortly after he was sworn in again as education commissioner, Tilde said nomadic education has suffered neglect in the past, thus, would be the state’s priority.

The commissioner said he has met with the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Professor Bashir Usman, who assured him of the commission’s support.

“The statistics are clear. In the past five years, only seven projects were carried out under Bauchi State Agency for Nomadic Education (BASANE), touching on only seven out of 463 primary schools, three of which were carried out by NCNE. To put it straight, the 463 schools have been abandoned for years. Is it surprising that we have bandits and kidnappers below the age of 30 from our forests?

“Are these schools not part of the basic schools’ count that are entitled to the attention that other similar schools get? Fortunately, I have cleared the matter with the executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission in Abuja a day before. These schools deserve to be treated as other schools,” Tilde said.

He promised to involve all stakeholders in the state, saying, that as clerics continue with their efforts to take religious education to the nomads, the government needs to retrace its steps and pay due attention to the rights and plight of the nomads. “Education is the only tool for their refinement and integration into the larger civilization,” he said.