With sustained attacks on vulnerable schoolchildren by terrorists, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, yesterday, declared that Nigeria currently sits on a horrifying education crisis and socio-economic disaster, calling for an urgent multi-stakeholder solution to remedy the situation.
Ahmed, who said this in Abuja at a high level dialogue with the theme, “Financing Safe Schools: Creating Safe Learning Communities”, called on the government and the private sector to immediately join forces to stop the attacks on the fundamental rights of children to a safe learning environment.
According to the minister, if the current fractured state of education is sustained, the country would have failed to guarantee a safe learning environment, secure and protect the dignity of children, their teachers, and school administrators.
The programme is aimed at initiating a process towards renewing and reimagining the government’s commitment to maintaining learning environments that are safe and secure.
She lamented that already, parents are increasingly more nervous about sending their children, and particularly, their young girls to school, with some choosing to withdraw existing students.
“The time to act is now”, she said, calling for a comprehensive response to the insecurity challenges facing the country, stressing that they have devastating effects on the various sectors of the economy.
“The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis have posed unprecedented challenges globally and here in Nigeria”, the minister declared.
“While we have been proactive in our response to the pandemic, and have established and are implementing the Economic Sustainability Plan and other interventions (including the scaling up of social safety net programmes, and increased investments in health and education), the pandemic has deepened insecurity across the country and resulted in an alarming spate of school attacks and mass kidnappings.”