From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Chairman, Farmers-Herders Initiative for Peace and Development Africa, Salim Musa Umar on Friday said insecurity in the country has claimed the lives of 20,000 farmers and displaced 19,000 others in the past seven years.
Umar spoke as a resource person at a one-day training workshop on Data Collectors on the Impact of Conflict and Insecurity in the Implementation of Nomadic Education Programmes on Nomadic Communities in Selected North-Central States of Niger, Nasarawa and Plateau, organised by National Commission for Nomadic Education.
He noted that over 1,500 schools had been destroyed within the years under review. “The rampant growth of extortionate banditry has added new dimensions to Nigeria’s educational sector as over 1, 500 schools destroyed since 2014. It has resulted in an increase of out-of-school children and a drop in new enrollments across the board in formal and non-formal sectors of our school system,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Nomadic Education, Prof. Bashir Usman, lamented the spate of insecurity across Nigeria, such as kidnapping, armed banditry and cattle rustling had created debilitating effects on nomadic education.
Represented by the Director, Quality Assurance in the commission, Mr. Akin Akinyosoye, the varsity don lamented that violent communal clashes, sea piracy among others, had led to the loss of many lives and the destruction of school facilities, which had impacted the smooth running of the nomadic education programme.