Education advocate decries incessant attack on educators, schoolchildren

From Felix Ikem, Nsukka

An abroad-based education advocate, Myriam Ene, has decried the renewed attacks on educators and schoolchildren in the country, warning that a terror attack on education is an attack on the future of the nation.

Ene, who spoke to our reporter on the telephone from Canada on Tuesday following the recent terror attack and abduction of teachers and schoolchildren in Oyo state, said that terrorists’ attacks on education should be considered a national crisis.

She lamented what she described as “the government’s poor response”  to the ongoing terror attacks on education and cited rising casualties, economic collapse in vulnerable regions, and the continuous abductions of defenceless teachers and school children.

“Teachers and schoolchildren are being kidnapped. Families are crying. Innocent people are begging for help on camera. Yet somehow, the country still moves on like this is normal.

“The moment educators and children are no longer safe, the future of a nation is under attack.

“Today it is Oyo State, yesterday it was somewhere in the North, tomorrow it could be anywhere. This is no longer a regional problem, this is a national crisis.

“Where are the emergency national addresses? Where are the nonstop conversations from our pulpits? Where are the coordinated protests? Where is the pressure from celebrities, influencers, traditional rulers, student unions, churches, mosques, civil society groups, and every public figure with a platform?,” she queries.

The education advocate, who is also a humanitarian, and the founder of the Myriam Ene Foundation which has been providing educational support to schools in the South East and South South regions of the country, urged Nigerians not to accept the ugly trends of terror attacks as a normal phenomenon, adding that a country cannot prosper when fear has become part of its daily life.

“The government should understand that Nigerians are tired of statements without visible action. Protecting schools, teachers, and children should be treated like a wartime emergency. Security intelligence must improve. Borders must be secured. Communities must be protected. Kidnappers and terrorists must know there are consequences.

“Citizens cannot afford apathy anymore, keep talking about it. Keep posting, keep demanding accountability, keep pressuring leaders, keep tagging the authorities, keep organising protests peacefully, keep refusing to normalise evil, because silence is helping this crisis grow.

“Every Nigerian parent should be alarmed, every teacher should be protected, and every child deserves to go to school without fear.

Nigeria belongs to all of us, and if we stay silent while fear spreads across the nation, one day nobody will be untouched by it,” she said.

Suspected terrorists on motorbikes had attacked Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota, Community Grammar School, Ahoro-Esinele; and L.A. Primary School, all in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, during the morning hours of Friday, May 15, abducting school children and staff