President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to open N1.6 billion trust fund for the Safe Schools Initiative.
The initiative, launched in Abuja on May 7 at World Economic Forum, was aimed at protecting hundreds of schools in Nigeria in response to the growing number of attacks on the right to education in the country.
Jonathan gave the order at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday when he met with the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown as well as Yobe and Borno State Governors Ibrahim Geidam and Kashim Shettima.
Briefing State House journalists after the meeting, Okonjo-Iweala said the governors of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa would be working with the Federal Government to make communities and schools safer “so that our children who are in these areas can come back to school”.
According to her, this is intended to ensure children have an environment “which they can come back to school and not have their education truncated”.
“And Mr President has kicked off this initiative by opening and instructing that I open a trust fund which we’ve already put N1.6billion. The private sector is also putting N1.6 million, His Excellency, Gordon Brown, is going to be raising some resources and the governors are also putting in commitment.
Also speaking, Brown said he brought the sympathy and solidarity of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon over the abduction of the schoolgirls of Chibok, Borno State, adding that the UN would back the ongoing rescue efforts in the country.
He said though the Safe Schools Programme was for the whole country, it was starting in the states which had suffered most from terrorist attacks in recent times.
“It’s our determination as an international community to help families feel secure about their boys and girls going to school with the hope that they’ll be safe. That’s why we’re looking at security for the schools and how we can help the governors and the Nigerian people with fortifications telecommunications, guards and safety equipment that will enable people feel more secured about the schools”, he said.
Brown said the UN also wanted help rebuild the Chibok school “because we want parents of that area to be sure that when thier girls are released, they can come home to a school that is rebuilt and safe.
“And we want to help in rebuilding the schools in other areas where schools have either been demolished, burnt down or vandalized. And we want, over the long run, to help Nigeria, which is a great country with a great future and wonderful potentials, to enable it so that the 10.5 million boys and girls who don’t go to school today are able to go to school. And I can assure you that round Europe, Asia, America and Latin America there is massive support for Nigeria in this hour of difficulty and also in its ambition to be such a great country with great educational standards”.
Geidan and Shettima pledged their cooperation for the success of the programme.
Shettima noted that the current security situation called for sobriety and unity of purpose, warning against playing politics with human lives”
“It is an issue that basically boils down to education, poverty, empowerment. By the grace of God, we want to give you our commitment that we’re going to pursue this thing (Safe Schools Initiative) vigorously with all the resources at our disposal. And please, it will be completely devoid of politics. Times like this call for sobriety, maturity, for unity of purpose. At the appropriate time, we’re going to play politics but, this is not time for playing politics with the lives of people”, he said.
