Atiku canvasses safe environment for Nigerian children

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election, has called for the creation of a safe environment for Nigerian children, urging parents to inculcate in the young ones good behaviour and instil in them, high moral values.

The call was contained in a statement signed by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, to felicitate with the Nigerian children on the occasion of Children’s Day.

He said that it was incumbent on the Nigerian society to ensure that they (children) attain their full potential in life.

The former Vice President expressed regrets and disappointments that efforts to make life easy and better for the children are yielding abysmal results.

This, he noted, has not been helped by the ongoing global pandemic ravaging the world, and which has caused many schools to be partially or completely shut down as the world struggles to curtail the spread and find a cure to the deadly coronavirus disease, otherwise known as Covid-19.

Atiku recalled a report released in March 2021, by Save the Children Network, which stated that: “children across the world have lost an average of one-third (74 days) of education each, due to school closure and lack of access to remote learning” and also corroborated by UNESCO findings, which concluded that, “close to half the world’s students are out of school worldwide due to partial or full school closures linked to the coronavirus pandemic.”

According to him, “These are not good or encouraging statistics,” but he reckoned that, “it is a reminder that a lot of work is needed in this direction to mitigate both the immediate and long-term adverse effects of the coronavirus pandemic on education in all facets but most importantly, those of children.”

The Waziri of Adamawa went further to say that education is the bedrock of any society, and that the pandemic was a wake-up call on administrators and leaders at all levels to do more, by putting in place infrastructure, and making available learning materials in institutions of learning.

He congratulated the children “on this memorable day set aside to celebrate them,” urging them to be good ambassadors of their parents and country wherever they may be, and wishing them success in their chosen careers and future endeavours.