The President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has raised the alarm that the disturbing insecurity in the northern part of Nigeria was already affecting the disposition of young people, especially girls, towards education.
He said the attacks on school hostels by bandits and insurgents who usually kidnap the students was affecting the attitude of girls in the North to education.
Lawan stated this in Abuja on Saturday evening when he spoke as the special guest of honour at the art exhibition organised by Stephen Binos, the son of the Senator representing Adamawa South Senatorial District, Yaroe Binos.
He said, “It is a very bad development that education is suffering especially with so much kidnapping of school children especially the girl child.
“In northern Nigeria, education has always been a problem and it is getting worse with this kind of abduction of school children and even those in tertiary institutions.
“I believe we should continue to fight insurgency, banditry for us to restore normalcy in our country and for our country to make progress.”
Lawan said the desire of the current administration in Nigeria was to ensure that the country stabilises to be able to provide a better security environment for the youths to continue to excel and to attract foreign direct investment.
He said, “It is a challenge but I believe that it is for all of us, the federal, the state and of course the local government and ethnic groups across the country.
“This is a situation that needs all hands on deck, regardless of what we believe in
“We all need to survive first before we achieve any excellence and I believe that we can do so well, we can reverse the current trends of insecurity in our country.”
Lawal commended the artist, saying that he had succeeded in documenting history and very important moments.
He said the artwork would remain historical in the country
He said, “The situation across the world demands that we document history with artwork.
“Technology is a blessing to us but it also has its own way of undermining our culture.
“I believe in keeping to my culture because it doesn’t stop me from being modern and contemporary but it enriches my thinking and orientation, my behaviour and attitude.
“We need to keep our culture and value them, it does not stop us from being modern.”
Binos told journalists that he decided to document the culture of the various minority tribes in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states to save them from extinction.
