Army partners CSOs for safe schools in Zamfara

The Commander of 1 Brigade Nigerian Army, Gusau, Zamfara State, Brig.-Gen. Sani Ahmed, has pledged collaboration with the civil society organisations in the state towards achieving safe schools in the state.

Ahmed made the pledge in Gusau on Friday while receiving a delegation of the CSOs of the safe school technical team in the state during an advocacy visit.

The federal government in 2014 launched the Safe Schools Initiative to ensure that children in conflict areas continue their education.

The brigade commander described the visit as timely, adding that stakeholders must collaborate to ensure success of the initiative in the state.

“This is a welcome development to have CSOs coming together to contribute in ensuring children in communities affected by insecurity return to schools. I always have more feelings on the negative impact of insecurity on education.

“I received your recommendations in the reports given to me. We are going to do what we can to accommodate it in our plans,” Ahmed said.

He called for more support to the military operations, noting that stakeholders must work together in the fight against insecurity.

“As CSOs, I called on you to assist us in educating the general public on the need to support military operations,” he added.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Ahmad Hashim, said the visit was to advocate safe school initiative to the Nigerian Army.

“We are here for an advocacy visit to this command regarding education in the state. We strongly believe that education should not stop because of insecurity. For the past 12 years, the state has been bedevilled by violent conflicts that have significantly affected the 14 local government areas of the state,” Hashim said.

Hashim added that education as a component of social development was also affected as some schools in the state recorded kidnappings.

This, he said, led to closure of primary and secondary schools in some parts of the state.

“We are more concerned on how our schools and education are affected negatively by insecurity. Education must continue even if in a condition of emergencies,” he said.

(NAN)