The education of nomads will help end banditry as no amount of military bullets and bombs can stop the security challenges bedevilling Nigeria, the Kaduna Zonal Director of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Mallam Buhari Awwalu, has said.
Auwalu who stated this in Zaria yesterday at the opening ceremony of a 5-Day Training Workshop for the staff of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) on radio production for the take-off of Radio Zamanu International, reiterated that only education of the excluded groups like the nomads would address the challenges.
Represented by the general manager of Karama Radio, Kaduna, AbdulRahman Nuhu Bayero, the FRCN boss identified failure of the education of Fulani Nomads as being responsible for the current challenge of banditry.
He, however, called for improved funding and equipment for the Nomadic Education Commission, to enable it properly educate the nomads and bring an end to banditry.
According to him, “Nomadic education is key to peace of this country. We need education to survive. If this commission is properly equipped to handle the education of nomads, we will not be facing the spate of insecurity we are facing today.
“We need to educate our nomads and the less privileged in the society and also provide them with source of livelihood, so that life will continue to develop. Bullets and bombs will not solve the problems of insecurity.
“There is therefore need for the Federal Government and the international agencies to look inward and find ways of proper funding and strengthening of the commission to achieve peace, security and stability in the country,” FRCN said.
Earlier in his keynote address, the executive secretary of NCNE, Prof. Bashir Usman, who was represented by director Quality Assurance, Mr. Akin Akinyosoye, said the prevalence of out of school children in Nigeria, especially among the nomadic groups calls for multifaceted approach, especially with the rising insecurity and the incessant clashes between the herders and crop farmers.
He however said the commission intends to use the new radio station, Radio Zamanu International, to promote peace between the herders and their crop farming neighbours, starting from Gombe, Kano, Oyo and Plateau states.
Usman added, “We shall use the radio to vigorously campaign for improved enrolment, retention, transition and progression of nomadic children in their educational careers through various strategies of radio programming,” he said.
NCNE’s HoD Social Mobilisation and Women Development, Dr. Fidelis Idoko, said with license to operate Radio Zamanu International, the commission is better equipped to provide quality tuition to its targeted group via the radio technology.
