Terrorism Has Claimed The Lives Of Over 2,295 Teachers – NLC

ABUJA – The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has pegged the figures of teaching professionals killed across the country as a result of activities of bandits and Boko Haram at over 2,295.

It said the killings spans over a decade, precisely since 2009, while more than 19,000 of them were displaced in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa states.

NLC gave these figures, prior to a nationwide protest it convened at its headquarters in Abuja to protest the spate of insecurity in the country.

The organised Labour however suggested 10 measures that could be implemented by the federal government to address the security challenge confronting Nigeria.

Addressing the workers and other stakeholders, Deputy General Secretary of NLC, Ishmail Bello, said the federal government must do something urgently to arrest the growing state of insecurity in the country.

According to Bello, it behooves the government to protect students and their teachers from attacks by criminals, especially while learning.

He stated, “Students should be protected, that is all we are saying. Our constitution guarantees that. All the government needs to do is to bring all the powers and the machinery of governance to ensure that all the ungoverned spaces in our country are recovered immediately.

“Federal Government should ensure that all our schools are protected, so that our children can go back to school. Ensure that everybody who has meted with this undercut the economy are fished out and punished, jailed and sent to prison.”

In his estimation, insecurity had negatively affected the economy and social lives of Nigerians, stressing that millions of Nigerians have been forced to relocate from their homes and dislocated from their means of livelihood.

Bello stated, “Many farmers in the country are unable to go to their farms as armed terrorists, bandits and militants have taken over their farmlands.

“Those who can undertake some farming activities do so under a cruel regime of extortion in the form of heavy protection fees to criminals

“Also, affected are medical and health workers, nurses, local government workers, teachers, petty traders etc.”

In suggesting the way forward, NLC said the federal government should try and enforce Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution and make its provisions justiciable.

It called for the convening of a Citizens Dialogue on the Nigeria of our dream, with the outcome informing necessary constitutional and sundry legal framework reforms and adjustments.

 It equally suggested that government should establish a Security Trust Fund at all levels of government and remove every veil of secrecy in the management of security votes.

“The funds should be judiciously used in boosting security intelligence, recruitment and welfare of security personnel and equipping the security sector,” NLC stated.