Education

Chibok Girls: UNICEF urges Nigerian Govt. to make schools safe

Published

2 years ago

April 14, 2022

Chibok Girls: UNICEF urges Nigerian Govt. to make schools safe

As part of activities marking the eight years commemoration of the Chibok girl’s abduction in Borno State, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has, in a statement, appealed to authorities in Nigeria to make schools safe and provide a secure learning environment for every child in the country, especially for girls, to increase girls’ enrolment, retention, and completion of education.

The statement, which was signed by the UNICEF country representative, Peter Hawkins, on Thursday, was to mark the abduction of the 276 students at Government Girls’ Secondary School Chibok.

“Today marks eight years since the first known attack on a learning institution in Nigeria on 14 April 2014, in which 276 students at the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in North-East Nigeria were abducted by a Non-State Armed Group.

“Since then, a spate of attacks on schools and abductions of students – sometimes resulting in their deaths – has become recurrent in the last two years, especially in the North-West and North-Central regions of Nigeria. Since December 2020, 1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools, and 16 school children lost their lives.

“Unsafe schools, occasioned by attacks on schools and abduction of students, are reprehensible, a brutal violation of the rights of the victims to education, and totally unacceptable. Their occurrences cut short the futures and dreams of the affected students,” Peter Hawkins remarked in the press release.

Hawkins added: “Attacks on learning institutions render the learning environment insecure and discourage parents and caregivers from sending their wards to schools, while the learners themselves become fearful of the legitimate pursuit of learning.

“The invisible harm school attacks inflict on the victims’ mental health is incalculable and irredeemable.”

He further said, “Girls have particularly been targeted, exacerbating the figures of out-of-school children in Nigeria, 60 per cent of whom are girls. It is a trajectory which must be halted, and every hand in Nigeria must be on deck to ensure that learning in Nigeria is not a dangerous enterprise for any child, particularly for girls.”

The organisation stated that “In Nigeria, a total of 11, 536 schools were closed since December 2020 due to abductions and security issues.

“These school closures have impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year. This interruption of their learning contributes to gaps in children’s knowledge and skills and may lead to the loss of approximately 3.4 billion USD in these children’s lifetime earnings. This risks to further perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.”

According to the press release, UNICEF, with generous funding from donors, is collaborating with the government of Nigeria to protect children’s right to education in a safe and inclusive learning environment. This involves building the capacity of School-Based Management Committees on school safety and security and strengthening community resilience.

The statement read further: “In Katsina State, 300 SBMC members have been trained, and schools, supported through the Girls’ Education Project funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, have developed Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans to mitigate the impact of potential and actual threats.

“Multi-sectoral task teams on school safety have also been established across all the 34 LGAs of Katsina State to provide timely and efficient networking among actors on school security, with particular focus on the safety of girls. Additionally, 60 Junior Secondary Schools have developed emergency plans and tested the plans in evacuation drills.

“In Katsina State, government and communities have fenced some schools, and this is encouraging girls to attend school, underscoring the reality that collaboration is required in addressing insecurity in schools and making schools safe, especially for girls,” said Hawkins.

“Although Nigeria has ratified the Safe Schools Declaration, schools and learners are not sufficiently protected. Unless greater attention is given to protecting children, teachers and schools, they will continue to come under attack. Urgent, coordinated action is needed to safeguard the right to learn for every child in Nigeria.”

Education

Al Ansar University Maiduguri: An opinion in the contrary

Published

7 days ago

May 3, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Al Ansar University Maiduguri: An opinion in the contrary

By Balami Lazarus.

Universities are centers of teaching, learning, and research to improve the quality of life for human capital growth and development.

However, while it should be acknowledged by those standards, many people, particularly in Nigeria, are taking a religious perspective to fill the gap in their opinion of certain universities across the country.

NEWSng was in Maiduguri recently and took time to visit some higher institutions, particularly Al Ansar University, the first private institution in the state. The discovery was touching, contrary to some opinions in the state.

Speaking of universities in Maidtguri, Al Ansar University is seen and wrongly referred to as an Islamic university by measure and standard, but this is not the case with Al Ansar University.

Al Ansar is Arabic, translated simply as the”helpers” or “those who bring victory.” But the view, opinion, or impression of the people is rather lacking in the meaning of the Arabic words.

NEWSNG, as usual, made an attempt to reveal the truth about this conventional university of universal standards in character, teaching, learning, research, and academic pursuits, where it recently offered admission to some selected brilliant students on full scholarship from the Borno State Government courtesy of His Excellency Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the Executive Governor of the State.

Speaking on the university, the Vice Chancellor, a respected scholar and university administrator, Prof. Abubakar Musa Kundiri, said that the wrong opinions expressed about the university by members of the public did not actually represent the truth about the institution.

“We are not as the members of the public see and consider us. Al Ansar is like any other conventional university running accredited academic programs you might think of. I think people should not judge a book by its cover.” He said.

Al Ansar University Maiduguri: An opinion in the contrary

Education

Borno State University admits first set of medical students

Published

2 weeks ago

April 24, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Borno State University admits first set of medical students

By: Bodunrin Kayode

Borno State University has matriculated its first set of medical students in its five years of academic history.

Making his remarks during the fifth matriculation of the institution recently, the Vice Chancellor (VC) Professor Umar Sandabe stated that during the 2022/2023 academic session, the University applied to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to establish Bachelor of Medicine and surgery (MBBS).

The fifth matriculation also had an array of students for the course of Doctor of Physiotherapy, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of medical laboratory Science (BMLS), Bachelor of Radiography and Bachelor of health information management systems (BHIMS).

Other courses approved by the Senate included, Bachelor of Arts in history and Bachelor of Arts in Arabic, the Bachelor of science Biochemistry and the institution of Education.

The VC said that 2,400 students were admitted with 174 coming in through direct entry while jamb admitted 2226 from Borno and all the states of the Federation.

A break down of those who matriculated include 88 with the faculty of Agriculture, 774 in science, 631 Arts and education 527 with management science and 380 in the College of health sciences.

The outgoing VC used the occasion to announce that the institution has graduated its first set of 510 graduates who are already collecting their statement of results pending departure to the national youth service Corp (nysc).

Sandabe said that the University has completed and commissioned the mass communication studio which would give rise to the launch of its radio station soonest.

Other structures completed are the College of Health sciences and its being furnished and some lecture halls which will soon be commissioned.

On accommodations, he said that a new female hostel is been built to complement the existing one in a bid to accommodate more students on campus to ease their burdens on where to stay during sessions.

“At the temporary library site, we started with zero book and the library is now boasting with about 18,000 books with 700 volumes of journals with a very robust e-library with six data bases” said Sandabe.

Borno State University admits first set of medical students

Education

ECOWAS Insists Women, Children Need to be Involved in Peace Building in West Africa

Published

2 weeks ago

April 22, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

ECOWAS Insists Women, Children Need to be Involved in Peace Building in West Africa

By: Michael Mike

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has insisted that women, children and youth must be involved in the search of peace and security in the West African region.

The Director Humanitarian and Social Affairs, ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Sintiki Tarfa-Ugbe, said it would be difficult to address the challenges of insecurity and violence in the region without these set of people because they are mostly affected.

Tarfa-Ugbe spoke in Abuja at the 2024 First Annual meeting of the ECOWAS Women Peace and Security Regional Steering Group with the theme: “Sustaining the momentum towards monitoring and reporting on women, peace, and security agenda using the continental results framework (CRF).”

She decried that for long the issue of security and peace have been left in the hands of other people while the women, children and youth have been silent, insisting that “it is time for their voices to be heard.”

Tarfa-Ugbe said: “For us as ECOWAS Commission, peace and security is an important pillar of development. And we can’t talk about peace and security without women and children and the youth.

“Part of our work as ECOWAS Commission is to continue to promote the inclusivity of women, children and youth in the peace and security and stability agender of the region.

“We are here with representatives of the 15 members state to report to us on what they are doing and what are the challenges and how we can consolidate on addressing the peace and security issues.

“We don’t want the agenda to be dominated by people who are not affected by the issues.

“Women and children are the ones who are affected by the issue, we want their voices to be heard on the table.

She claimed that the various representations shows how important the meeting was.

The Director said: “Today you can see that the Commissioner Human Development and Social Affairs, Prof. Sarr, as the representative of the ECOWAS President is here and also the Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye representing the Nigerian government.

“And you know Nigeria is the Chair of ECOWAS and she has demonstrated that she’s ready to push the agenda but not push the agenda as policy talk but an action talk and we will continue that engagement with the members state and Nigeria moving forwar.

On her part, Prof. Fatou Sow Sarr, Commissioner, Human Development and Social Affairs said the meeting is of critical importance as women play fundamental role in ensuring the sustainability of peace processes and resolutions of conflict.

She said that the meeting is meant to help restrategise and plan for the future

Sarr said: “As we gather here, we are reminded of the critical importance of advancing the women, peace and security agenda in our region, with the understanding that peace and security are fundamental pillar for development and prosperity, and women play an indispensable role in ensuring the sustainability of peace processes and resolutions of conflict.

“In this workshop, we aim not only to exchange knowledge and experience but also to strategize and plan for the future. The continental results framework provide us with a roadmap, a guiding light towards achieving our collective goals in advancing the agenda by aligning our efforts with this framework, we can enhance coordination, cooperation and accountability across Ecowas member states in implementing the WPS agenda

“We must recognize that achieving meaningful progress requires concerted action at all levels from grass roots communities to regional and continental institutions as such, today we have the opportunity to dialogue share knowledge and further build our capacity to overcome challenges and capitalize on opportunities in advancing the women peace and security agenda.

“Ladies and gentlemen you will all agree that together we represent a diverse array of backgrounds expertise and perspective, it is this diversity that will enrich our discussion and enable us to explore innovative approach to strategies and address the challenges ahead as we embark on this journey together let us remain mindful of the significance of our task and reaffirm our commitment to promoting the meaningful participation of women in decisions Glenda perspective into all aspects of peace and security initiatives

“The stakes are high but so is our determination let us harness the collective energy and commitment in this room to drive real tangible progress towards a more peaceful inclusive and equitable region for all.”

Nigeria’s Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, on her part, said the present government is ready to work on past policies to improve women situation in the country.

She lamented what women and children are made to face in the country especially in the way their issues are treated by the police, adding that the time has come to change the narrative.

ECOWAS Insists Women, Children Need to be Involved in Peace Building in West Africa