Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says there is no better time than now for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector and to post 24-hour armed guards at every school, especially those in states affected by banditry.
Abubakar said this in a terse statement he personally signed on Monday, entitled: “School Abductions: Short Term Solutions Will Result in Long Term Destruction.”
Abubakar said in the statement that no expense should be spared in keeping schools safe.
“With 13.5 million children, Nigeria is already the world headquarters for out-of-school kids. This can only make things worse. It behooves us as a nation to act decisively and excise this cancer of school abductions from our polity with clinically precise policies,” he said.
Abubakar also warned that continuing to pay ransom to kidnappers is a short-term solution that will result in long-term destruction.
He added: “We must also stop paying ransom at random. It is a short-term solution that will cause much long-term destruction. We must as a nation impose law and order now, or we will bequeath lawlessness and disorder to the next generation.”