Banditry, Sea Piracy Threatening Nomadic Education In Nigeria – NCNE Boss

The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Prof. Bashir Haruna Usman, has said that kidnapping, banditry and sea piracy have negatively affected the smooth implementation of Nomadic Education Programme (NEP) in the country.

The Executive Secretary disclosed this on Friday in Kaduna at a one-day training workshop of Data Collectors on ‘Impact Assessment on Conflict and Insecurity on the Delivery of Nomadic Education Programmes in Some Selected States Of Niger, Nasarawa, and Plateau of the North-central Geo-political Zone’.

Represented by Director, Quality Assurance, Mr. Akin Akinyosoye, the NCNE boss said: “insecurity characterised by violence, communal clashes, cattle rustling, kidnappings, armed banditry and sea piracy have negatively affected the smooth implementation of Nomadic Education Programme (NEP).

“The implementation of the NEP in the country is faced with numerous challenges most especially the issues of insecurity. The resultant effect of the insecurity on the programme include, among others, loss of lives and destructions of school facilities.

“This, therefore, has worsened the poor pupils’ enrolment, daily attendance, retention,
completion and transition.

“Similarly, the high level of insecurity leads to displacement of nomads that resulted in complete abandonment of schools and frequent migration which increases the high rate of drop-out as well as out-of-school children.”

According to him, the Commission would in the future train local communities on strategies to be applied in addressing the emerging challenges and response to the early warning of potential conflicts.

Earlier in his address, the Director of Consultancy, NCNE, Malam Abubakar Ahmadu Yaro, noted that conflict and insecurity among nomadic pastoralists and farmers is becoming very alarming in most of the States of North-Central zone.

Yaro further said that there was the need for assessment of the immediate and remote causes of such conflicts in the zone, maintaining that the findings from the training would assist the commission in proffering lasting solution towards addressing the menace.

In his paper presentation titled, ‘Rural Banditry and Its Implications For Effective Service Delivery In NCNE’, the chairman, Farmers-Herders Initiative for Peace and Development Africa, Salim Musa Umar, said “over 19,000 persons were displaced from their assignment, 1,500 schools destroyed since 2014 and over 2,000 teachers killed due to insecurity bedevilling the country.”