AFRICA/NIGERIA - Archbishop Kaigama: "Insecurity threatens the existence of universities"

Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - "The attacks by bandits and other criminal elements on the education sector do not only affect the safety of students and staff in schools but also directly or indirectly affect the survival of private universities", said His Exc. Mgr. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, Archbishop of Abuja, during a ceremony at Veritas University in Bwari, Abuja. Archbishop Kaigama asked the government to improve safety on university campuses to protect students' lives:
"I, therefore, wish to use this medium to call on the government to take drastic steps to improve on the security and safety of lives and properties in and around university campuses across Nigeria".
The appeal of the Archbishop of Abuja joins those launched by associations of Nigerian professors and students in recent months. In November 2021, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) denounced what it described as "an uncontrollable wave of insecurity" in Nigeria, which also affected the nation's educational institutions from primary to university institutions.
The union blamed the government for its failure to protect schools, colleges and universities.
The Nigerian school and university sector is already being challenged by strikes and wage claims with frequent interruptions in academic calendars. In addition, there is insecurity with the increase in cases of kidnapping of school children and fears of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; As a consequence, teaching activities are interrupted, thus increasing the number of children who do not go to school.
Nearly 1,000 secondary and university students have been kidnapped in coordinated attacks by terrorists and bandits in the past 10 months, mostly in the northern region of the country. In the north-east where the factions born from the split of Boko Hamra operate, more than 800 schools remain closed due to insecurity, while kidnappings and violent attacks on schools in the south-west regions increase. In the Southeast, the education system is strained by the imposition by the separatist group IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) to close all businesses, including educational ones, every Monday until its leader Nnamdi Kanu is released. The ban imposed on July 30 last year was suspended on August 14, but in any case in these areas, activities are paralyzed every Monday. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 2/2/2022)

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