How FG Can Protect Schools, Nigerians From Kidnappers – Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has offered his view on how the Federal Government can protect schoolchildren and other vulnerable Nigerians from kidnappers.

Atiku said the Federal Government was wrong to say that it “cannot secure every house” from kidnappers and other criminals.

“The FG may think they cannot protect all schools, but in actual fact, they can. It is a matter of leadership priority. Children are our greatest asset. If we reassign police officers currently engaged in non-essential guard duties for individuals to schools in the affected states, the object can be achieved.

“Recent figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics reveal that Nigeria now has an all-time high unemployment rate of 33.2%, up from 8.4% in 2015. Rather than think we cannot secure all our schools, let us kill two birds with one stone and massively recruit more police officers to provide the needed security,” the former vice president said in a Facebook post.

Atiku stated this after the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, told The Punch in an interview that the citizens needed to help themselves by being watchful as the government lacked the wherewithal to protect all of them.

“Eternal vigilance is the price for security. Every nation is always concerned about the consciousness of its people. The Federal Government cannot secure every house. Everybody needs to be vigilant. We have passed this message to all our schools so that anywhere they are, if there is any threat, they know the nearest security agency to contact,” Nwajiuba had said.

Kidnapping schoolchildren for ransom has become common in Nigeria in the last few years. Bandits have increasingly targeted learning intuitions to abduct schoolchildren and demand ransom from the government.