Warns society against neglecting students’ security
Lagos State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Tolani Sule, has said that learning cannot thrive where safety is uncertain, and no society secures its future by neglecting the security of its students.

Sule, while delivering the keynote address at the Lagos Campus Security and Safety Summit 1.0 themed: “Strengthening Strategic Security Operations Towards Curbing Security Threats and Social Vices on Campus,” said that the state government, under the leadership of Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, treats students’ welfare and campus safety as a matter of strategic governance, not episodic intervention.

“Our approach is deliberate. We believe that security must be proactive, intelligence-driven, and people-centred. It must combine physical safety with psychological well-being, enforcement with education, and authority with empathy. For Lagos, strengthening campus security means a clear set of deliberate actions.

“It means building early-warning and intelligence-sharing systems that allow institutions to identify risks before they escalate. It means embedding security planning into campus design, student housing, academic scheduling, and digital platforms, among others.”

The commissioner noted that in Lagos State, campuses are not isolated spaces, as they are living, breathing extensions of the city itself, adding: “They sit within dense urban communities, intersecting with transport corridors, commercial activities, digital economies, and diverse populations.”

On his part, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Student Unions Affairs/Tertiary Education, Kappo Samuel Olawale, said the summit was not just another meeting but a call to action, as campuses must remain spaces of learning, innovation, and character-building, and not places where fear and insecurity.

Also speaking, Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, Dr Ayodele Ogunsan, noted that historically, campus security was largely centred on physical protection, securing facilities, preventing theft, managing access points, and responding to incidents of violence or disruption.