The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has directed State Commandants of the Corps to ensure the safety of school children and support the Safe Schools Project.
He gave the directive in a keynote delivered at a one-day capacity-building programme organised by the National Safe School Response Coordination Centre (NSSRCC), for State Coordinators and Desk Officers drawn from the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, held at the National headquarters of the Corps in Abuja.
Describing children as the greatest assets of Nigeria, Commandant General of NSCDC, Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, further charged the state commandants to assist in cascading the capacity-building training programmes for the benefit of more stakeholders in their domain.
He reiterated his administration’s commitment to the cause of safer schools for students, teachers, and host communities through training and retraining which is the mainstay of any organisation.
Represented by the Deputy Commandant General of Technical Services, DCG Zakari Ibrahim, the Corps’ helmsman said the training with the theme: “ensuring safer schools for all” is geared towards improving the capacity of NSSRCC personnel at all levels in line with achieving the Safe Schools Declaration target of the government.
“After the vulnerability study of schools conducted by the Corps in 2021, the Corps has since been committed to ensuring safer learning environments for children, teachers, and host communities,” he said.
The NSCDC boss urged participants to network and draw knowledge from experts for better service delivery and applauded the contributions of other stakeholders like the Ministries of Interior, finance and education and Civil Society Organisations like Save the Children International for their unwavering commitment towards achieving the mission of the centre.
Earlier in an address of welcome, the Commander of NSSRCC, ACC Rabiu Ibn Muhammed, said in the phase of new trends in insecurity like cyber threats, drug abuse, and cultism amongst others, the centre sees opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and growth and hence the need to equip its personnel on latest innovations and technologies in the security field.
“Experts have been carefully selected in various areas to impact new insights on the participants to better confront the various challenges facing the safety of schools all over the federation,” he noted.
He highlighted that other training phases will take place in other geopolitical zones before the first half of the year.
Also speaking in a goodwill message, the National Coordinator of Financing Safe Schools, Hajiya Halima Iliya Ibrahim extolled the efforts of the Commandant General and other stakeholders despite challenges of funding and budgetary allocation.
She encouraged the participants to actively participate and share knowledge, domesticate, and also cascade the knowledge to the grassroots.
The 300 participants for the one-day training were drawn from states in the North-Central Geopolitical Zone comprising Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Niger, Plateau States and the Federal Capital Territory.
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