It’s almost a month after the news of the “rescue” of the children and teachers abducted by terrorists and while we still await the independent investigation into the whole matter, we are still not getting the whole point why our schools need to be safe and why things like this must never happen again. We have moved on.
I have always known that Nigerians do not have a threshold for suffering. It’s as if we are always looking forward to new tiers of suffering/difficulty like someone playing Mario video game.
In this conversation, I want to be as patriotic as possible. I do not want to burden a clueless government with security of all. It’s a tall order for them. Let’s discuss schools first.
So my first question is – What measures have we put in place to prevent another abduction of school children and teachers? I’m being specific now about schools because I expect that the emotions that trailed the Oriire incident should get us all concerned to the extent that we would do everything possible to avoid a reoccurrence. But I guess I was wrong.
Do you know that Nigeria is a signatory to SAFE SCHOOLS PROTOCOLS; an international convention on how to safeguard schools. Some of the provisions in the 2014 Convention are so basic if the government was a serious one.
Provisions such as fortified perimeter fencing, solar-powered satellite panic alarm systems, database management across States, decentralized security/ intelligence gathering and training of locals to participate in community policing, are things that can be implemented immediately.
Rather than use the Oriire school as a poster for the Safe School Protocol, we are busy playing politricks with lives. In fact, instead of addressing root causes of the issue, one of the politicians in Oyo State, one Sarafa from the APC gifted the principal Toyota Camry while others have turned themselves to “Donatuses” donating cash up and down and taking pictures, pretending as if they care. We are just a very funny people!
It will interest you to know that just days after the “rescue”, some children and a headmaster were kidnapped in Kogi. So Kogi politicians should get ready to present the headmaster with Corolla when they are also “rescued” hopefully. And the cycle continues. No adherence to the provision of the Safe School Protocol. Any advantageous long term activity or policy that won’t involve our politicians taking pictures or naming a building after themselves, does not interest these elements ruining this country.
We have not learnt anything!
- Adeyeye Olorunfemi
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