FG To Inaugurate Presidential Steering Committee On School Safety

The federal government will this month inaugurate a Presidential Steering Committee to monitor and ensure the success of the Safe Schools Project.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, made the disclosure at a national summit on the Safe Schools Initiative project, themed: “Tackling Identified Threats in Nigeria,” in Abuja.

The SGF who was represented by his senior special assistant (Technical), Professor Bolaji Bernard Babatunde, said there was need for a steering committee to enhance coordination of the school safety project that would ensure that key stakeholders work cohesively within a unified framework, while also optimsing allocated resources for effective results in line with the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD).

Akume who revealed that the presidential steering committee would be inaugurated after the ministerial retreat, applauded the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) which is the coordinating agency of the project for rolling out remarkable initiatives aimed at curtailing attacks on schools in the country and eradicating insecurity.

While stating that the urgency to safeguard the nation’s educational institutions and the need ensure the protection of innocent students and teachers cannot be over emphasized, the SGF urged both states and local governments to make budgetary provisions in support of the implementation of the School Safety Project at their respective levels, if maximum and satisfactory result must be attained.

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He further advised states to key into the project by creating and coordinating response centers in collaboration with the recently launched National Response Coordination Centre to ensure that the benefit of the initiative extends to nooks and crannies of their various domains.

On his part, the minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who lamented that the safety and wellbeing of Nigerian students’ have been jeorpardised, said the federal government was duty bound to address the pressing issues comprehensively and urgently.

He pointed out that in recent years, Nigeria’s education sector had witnessed grave challenges due to threats from various witnessed at quarters, adding that the safety of schools shouldn’t be viewed as only government’s responsibility, but as a collective one.

Earlier, the Commandant -general, NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi who explained that the summit was organised  by the Safe Schools Coordination  Center to facilitate and equip relevant stakeholders on the implementation of ideas, said he was determined to see to end to all forms of attacks on school children across the country.

Dr. Audi who lamented that the centre had so far received less than five per cent support from state governments acknowledged that some had donated structures to serve as coordination centres.