Gabriel Dike and Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe

The United Nations (UN) in Nigeria has stressed the need to safeguard education from attack to restore confidence  as places of protection for children and teachers.

The UN stressed that this was particularly pressing in light of COVID-19, which had affected 46 million primary and secondary learners across Nigeria.

“As state governments plan to reopen schools after prolonged closures, building a resilient education system to withstand future shocks should be included in pandemic response plans,” said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Edward Kallon.

He noted that prioritising safety in schools for educators and learners was an indication of government’s commitment to protecting investments in the education sector and a validation of Nigeria’s endorsement of the safe schools declaration.

Meanwhile, UN has lauded Nigeria’s De-radicalization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DRR) programme for repentant Boko Haram  members in the North-East.

Kallon gave the commendation during a visit to the DRR camp in Mallam-Sidi Community in Kwami Local Government Area of Gombe State.

He said the UN was planning and focusing on the quality improvement of the programme which he said had followed the best global practice in de-radicalising and rehabilitating ex-insurgents with a view to making them better members of the society.

Related News

“Whatever new initiative the UN is going to be bringing on board is going to be very small. We are only going to focus on quality improvement. For example, I saw some of the clients doing some shoes, they can do this with quality improvement on that to access better markets. These are small, small things that can be fixed.”

He said the DRR programme was working toward bringing peace to the country and helping ex-combatants acquire skills to become better citizens and contribute to the growth of the society.

“The DRR programme is a critical peace building initiative that will contribute immensely to ensuring that ex-members of Boko Haram are reintegrated into the society. The programme is a co-operation between the government, military and other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) as we were briefed. These guys have brought on board best global practices, I commend their effort to ensuring that these ex-combatants are de-radicalised, rehabilitated and reintegrated back to the society to make meaningful contributions to their communities.”

The UN representative said the fight against insurgency in the country had lasted 11 years with casualties and millions of persons displaced from their homes. He, however, said the DRR programme presented an opportunity to ensure that peace was restored to the North East in the long run when the fight against insurgency would have been defeated.

Coordinator of Operation Safe Corridor (OSC), Maj. Gen Bamidele Shafa, said the DRR programme had achieved a lot of successes in its bid to restore peace in the North-East.

According to him, the success of the DRR programme was  attracting lots of attention from outside the country as representatives of other African nations had visited the camp to adopt Nigeria’s model of DRR. He commended Federal Government’s efforts in ensuring that peace is restored to the Northeast while rehabilitating ex insurgents as a tool to discourage insurgency in the zone.

This is as the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) said more than one million out-of-school children in insurgency-ravaged North East of Nigeria had in the past one year been empowered to access quality education in a safe environment. Dr. Judith Giwa-Amu, UNICEF’s Education Officer responsible for Education in Emergencies (EIE) Coordination at national level said UNICEF and partners had developed several programmes to ensure quality and safe environment for children in conflict zones, taking cognisance that “education is protection and lifesaving”, and could prevent children from being recruited into armed groups.