In a panic response to the gruesome murder of over 50 students of Federal Government College, BuniYadi, Yobe state on February 24, this year, the Federal Government on March 6, shut downfive unity schools in the troubled North-east of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. They include Federal Government Girls College, Munguno; College of Science and Technology, Lassa; Federal Government College, Potiskum; Federal Government College, Buni Yadi and College of Science and Technology, Michika.
A statement, signed by special assistant to the supervisory minister of education, Simeon Nwakaudu, directed that students, who were not writing public examinations, be relocated to Federal Government Girls College, Bauchi; Federal Government College, Maiduguri; Federal Government Girls College, Bajoga; Federal Government College of Science and Technology; Kafanchan and Federal Government Science College, Dayi.
The statement also directed that candidates who registered for WASSCE, NECO/SSCE in FGGC, Potiskum should have their examination centres relocated to FGGC, Bauchi, while those from FGGC, Munguno and FGC, BuniYadi, are also to be moved. The statement left the choice of the schools to accommodate the affected students at the discretion of parents among the schools listed above. And they are to foot the bills of relocation.
Schools in Yobe state have been targets of constant onslaughts by Boko Haram sect whose aversion to western education is their notorious mantra.
Among them are the Government Secondary School, Damaturu, Government Secondary School, Mamudo and College of Agriculture, Gujba, which suffered a similar attack to the one at Buni Yadi during which over 40 students were killed in September, last year.
The directive of the Federal Government to shut down theseschools has been rejected by the parents whose children are affected. They argued that rather than disperse the students, government should live up to its responsibility by providing adequate security for the schools. They reasoned that if the schools their children are being moved from are not secure, what guarantee is there that they would be safe elsewhere, more so that the insurgents have infiltrated most parts of the North?
Shutting down institutions for fear of Boko Haram attacks is not only cowardly but also an admission of government’s failure to guarantee the security of the citizens as enshrined in section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution.
The position taken by the parents against the relocation of their children can hardly be faulted. And to add salt to injury, they are being asked to finance the exercise. How inconsideratecan the government be?
We share the sentiment of the parentsin resisting the relocation. The government should not always follow the path of least resistance. It must secure the lives and properties of all Nigerian citizens living anywhere in this country. It is public knowledge that Nigeria is under-secured, given the huge population of over 170 million, while the aggregate number of security personnel across the board is far below a million, ill-equipped and poorly motivated.It is, therefore,inexplicable seeing dozens of security operativesswarming aroundpolitical office holders and their spouses, top civil servants, traditional rulers and highly connected private individuals and business moguls.Some of these operatives are used as errand boys for “oga madam”, while some pimp for their masters. It is this kind of egotisticarrangement that leaves the masses at the mercy of criminal elements.
The tug-of-war between the Federal Government and parents is a wake-up callto the former to face the challenge posed by the insurgents squarely by providing adequate security measures at the institutions in the region rather than a total shut down.
