FG playing catch-up with pupils’ welfare, security, says Kila

Director, Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS), Prof. Anthony Kila, has frowned at the Federal Government’s inability to provide security in Nigerian schools, saying Dapchi kidnap could have been prevented if the safety measures were put in place.

Kila who is also a Professor of Strategy and Development in an interview with The Guardian on the kidnap of 110 students of Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, regretted that the FG has continued to fall behind on issues of welfare and security of pupils, saying this is not the standard in developed climes.

Had the Safe School Initiative been duly implemented, Kila said the incident could have been averted.

“Clearly, the FGN is playing catch-up and it is being done in a clumsy way.

In a society with visionary leaders, after the sad disaster of the Chibok girls, such should never have been possible. In other parts of the world, schools have high level and serious security amenities in place for a lot less than what we are facing in Nigeria. 

“Ideally, the safe school policy should have been a given priority, with the ongoing events, it has become an essential policy for education. A school or system without a clear visible and effective safe school policy cannot deliver good education.

A safe environment helps us (children, parents and educators) do away with fear, which is a major cause of apathy for and distraction from education,” he said.

Speaking on how the bad scenario playing out in the North could be remedied considering the fact that they are the most backward in terms of education Kila said, “It can and it must be remedied with vision and analysis carried out by competent people.