United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown has called on terrorists who kidnapped 287 pupils in Kaduna to release them even as he promises to mobilize international support for Nigeria to secure their release.
He also expresses support for the new Nigerian-wide safe schools initiative.
According to him, no school child, no parent, no teacher should have to live in fear of terrorist abductions
Brown is also calling on the international community and local buisness to come together and work with the government of President Bola Tinubu to help Nigeria build the fences, the telecommunications
connections, security infrastructure and alarms needed to protect schools.
He called on the international community to urgently do all it can to support the release of the abducted students.
Brown also called on the Nigerian government to have immediate surveillance support from international partners to locate the kidnapped pupils.
He said that as UN envoy for global education , he is in contact with governments across the world asking them to offer help to find the girls whereabouts with a view to secure their early release.
To prevent a recurrence, Brown made the following suggestions:
First, we need enhanced intelligence and security information-sharing through the engagement of the Governors and intergovernmental forums. Second, we need detailed state-by-state school safety plans which are made public, with detailed actions both to build walls and fencing and to introduce state- of- the art
telecommunications connections and security alarms that can be easily actioned.
Third, we need to invest in community outreach and engagement programs, working with traditional and religious leaders to explain why if schools are protected and safer children should continue to attend . And fourth, we need to empower local people – school-based management committees – to make their own decisions to prioritize pupil and teacher safety to best meet local circumstances and needs.”
Brown offers to do everything he can to mobilize international financial and other support and worldwide expertise to help deliver the safe school programmes
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