IT is the responsibility of any government to take measures to guarantee the safety of lives and property in its area of jurisdiction. This responsibility is one of the major reasons why government exists in any society.
In Delta State, the government has undertaken activities in this direction by equipping the police and other security agencies, encouraging community policing and initiating bills to support the fight against all sorts of crimes, including kidnapping and sexual violence in schools.
In doing this too, the government is not oblivious to the importance of ensuring a conducive environment for the upbringing of children and other young people. To this end, existing schools are being secured through the appropriate agencies while new ones are established to take care of the growing need for admission of students, especially into higher institutions.
However, there is a need to consolidate the existing measures to ensure safety and peace in schools. This informed the recent two-day security forum of the Nigeria Police Force on the “Security of Schools in Delta State”, under the Nigeria Police Force Safe School Programme in the state, where the Governor, the Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori assured residents that no effort will be spared in ensuring security through partnership with relevant security agencies.
The governor’s assertion on the occasion with the theme: “Strengthening Security Resilience and Integration of Host Communities in the Protection of Education”, was apt as one of the challenges bedeviling education development in Nigeria in recent times is the incursion of criminals in academic institutions and involvement of young people into crimes.
The resurgence of banditry and kidnapping in the country made schools a target of the perpetrators in some states, including Delta. This criminal tendency manifested in the state in 2019 when suspected herdsmen invaded the secondary school in Issele-Azagba, Aniocha North Local Government Area of the State and kidnapped the principal and some teachers.
The incident jolted both the state government and the community. Besides, the community recorded no fewer than five other incidents by kidnappers who then laid siege on the community and perpetrated criminal acts whereby some lost their lives within the period.
Following the unfavourable growing cases of economic deprivation, occasioned by economic conditions in the country, the issue of unemployment, broken homes, peer influence, poverty, and the get-rich-syndrome have propelled youths into engaging in various crimes, including cultism, either for survival or to assert personality or authority.
In our various schools, the authority has to contend with cases of cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery, theft, banditry, bullying, drug trafficking, and sexual violence. These informed the move by the police authority to institute a safe school programme and save the youths from further abuse.
We commend the police authority for the initiative and the Delta State Government for hosting the two-day forum to chart a course for taming the incidents of crimes in schools. It is unarguably a positive measure to arrest cases of crimes in Nigerian schools.
However, we are disturbed that the initiative may go the way of other laudable programmes that were welcomed at the onset only to fade out within a short period. Otherwise, this is one policy that will guarantee safety for our children and society at large.
Therefore, to achieve the purpose, the stakeholders must give priority to the safety of our schools and the children. This can be achieved through rewards for community-based vigilantes, the establishment of school protection squads in the state, regular synergy with security agencies, and the provision of security equipment by the government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOS) and individuals.
Also, students and pupils, community leaders and residents should be encouraged to imbibe the slogan: “See something, say something” to provide necessary information about criminal activities and suspected individuals, while police should maintain confidentiality of information received from informants.
Besides, the government should monitor funds and motor vehicles released for this purpose, and ensure regular training of those involved in the execution of the programme, while youths must be well monitored by both the government, the parents and the school management.
The ‘Save Our Schools Programme’ is germane and it is believed to be the beginning of checking incidents of the youth’s involvement in crimes.
