Nigerian teachers threaten to shut down schools nationwide over abductions
- The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has expressed concerns over recent abductions of students
- The secretary of the union, Mike Ene disclosed why schools may be shut
- The official advises the government on measures that can be adapted to check abduction in schools
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The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) has threatened to shut down schools in the country over the reoccurring abduction of students by armed gangs.
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The national secretary of the NUT, Mike Ene told Vanguard that the lives of students and teachers were no longer safe.
He said:
“These abductions here and there are deliberate steps to discourage education and encourage school drop out. It is unfortunate that schools have now become soft targets and we appear helpless. You can see that by targeting boys only schools and girls only schools, their aim is to discourage both male and female from going to school.''
Ene said the union will shut down schools nationwide if it becomes unsafe for teachers and students to be in schools
The NUT secretary faulted the Zamfara state governor for saying his amnesty programme to bandits is working.
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He advised the federal government to prioritise security in schools
Ene stated that:
All the schools should be fenced and the walls high so that anybody who manages to scale it would do that in a way that he would make noise that would attract the attention of security people.
Also, schools should have military and local vigilantes guarding them. The local vigilantes would help provide necessary security information and tips for the military to work on.''
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally reacted to the abduction of Zamfara school children. The president said criminals terrorising the country should not think that they are more powerful than the government.
He said the government has the capacity to massively deal with the bandits but that the government is limited by fear of casualty.
Buhari said bandits should not entertain any belief that the government cannot do anything to deal with them.
Kess Ewubare is a senior political/current affairs correspondent at Legit.ng. He has both a BSc and a Master’s degree in mass communication. He has over 10 years of experience in working in several fields of mass communication including radio, TV, newspaper, and online. For Kess, journalism is more than a career, it is a beautiful way of life.
Source: Legit.ng
