Insecurity: Nigerian govt moves to protect Bauchi schools from threats

In a bid to secure students and provide a serene teaching and learning environment, Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Ministries of Finance and Defence has taken a measure to protect selected schools in Bauchi State from any security threats.

The disclosure was made by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Bauchi State, Dr Sule Madara, during a news Conference in his office on Friday,.

The Acting Commissioner in the Ministry also explained that a team from the two Ministries had already visited the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed and intimated him that Bauchi state had been selected as one of the pilot states to benefit from the intervention.

According to him, the intervention which is tagged ‘Financing Safe Schools Initiative’, the team requested the State Government to provide it with 48 Schools that are prone to security threats across the state.

He added that the intervention is through a fund that is dedicated to the provision of security to schools that are in the vulnerable areas by the Federal Government in helping the state to combat these security issues in schools in terror-prone areas.

According to him, “Their essence of coming to visit Governor Bala Mohammed was to introduce the highly powered delegation from the Federal Ministries of Finance, Defence and other security agencies to come to Bauchi and assess the security situations of security-prone schools across the state.

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Sule Madara explained further that, “They came and intimated the government about the fund that is made available to address the security challenges of schools that are prone to security issues in the country and they have chosen Bauchi state as one of the pilot states.”

The Ag Commissioner added that, “They requested for 48 Schools to start with in Bauchi state which includes Five Primary Schools each from the three Senatorial Districts, Five Junior Secondary Schools and Five Senior Secondary Schools.”

“They also selected one Tertiary Institution from each of the Three Senatorial Districts of the State and when you put all these figures together, they will give you 48 Schools that they are coming to intervene in, in the provision of security as security resilience of the communities,” he stressed.

He added that, “We expect that they are coming to assist in the development of security infrastructures. The building capacity of the host communities in case of eventualities.”

Sule Madara also said that the state government had taken them round the state and their team of assessors would soon start to assess all the schools selected for the intervention.

“The criteria we used in selecting the schools included those schools that had been attacked in the past or those that are perceived to be attacked as well as those schools that do not have perimeter fences and that are outside the major towns across the state,” the Permanent Secretary concluded.

By Yemi Kanji

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