Vice-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Isa Aremu yesterday said government should be held responsible for the abduction of over 200 school girls and the insecurity challenge in the country.
He described as a “misconception of governance” the statement credited to the representative of President Goodluck Jonathan, asking the “bringbackourgirls” protesters in Abuja to direct their protest to the abductors.
Speaking with newsmen in Ilorin shortly after the eight day fidau for late Serikinfawa of Ilorin, Alhaji Ahmadu Amosa Tuba, Aremu noted that the Nigeria’s security challenge should not be seen as an isolated issue affecting the North-east alone but the entire country.
He said the NLC expresses solidarity with members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) who protested last week against the abduction of Chibok Secondary school girls and the killing of 173 teachers by insurgents.
The development, he noted, was an attack on education and knowledge, adding that “all men and women of knowledge should stand up to save knowledge. An injury to teachers should be an injury to all Nigerians.
Not even during the civil war did we lose as many as 173 teachers at a go. They were not war activists, they were teachers and I think the lesson of this is that the current insecurity challenge should not be seen as an isolated issue”.
He tasked the government to act fast because, according to him, the current insecurity situation poses danger to governance.
He added, “After Almighty God, the only institution that is meant to protect citizens worldwide is government. After God, the only protector we possibly have is our government and when I say government, in the case of Nigeria, federal, states and local governments. So the challenge of insecurity can only be solved by the government and it is the government we know. We don’t know the killers but we know those we elected to protect us. It is they who must make sure schools are secured for uninterrupted learning. It is the federal government in collaboration with the states and local governments that would make sure pupils are secure in schools and teachers are protected”.
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