Rep. Bamidele Salam (PDP-Osun) has tasked the federal government to implement necessary security measures to ensure adequate security for students in schools nationwide.

Mr Salam, also the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts chairman, said this at the 2023 National Children’s Leadership Conference to mark the 2023 Universal Children’s Day in Abuja on Monday.

He said that with the prevailing security challenge in the country, students needed extra security to be in schools in some parts of the country due to attacks by bandits, insurgents and other criminal elements.

He said the lack of adequate security in schools had increased the number of out-of-school children in the country.

“It is not cheering news that Africa’s largest economy, the biggest nation in the black world, has a number of out-of-school children that is the highest in all the countries in the world,” he said.

He said Nigeria had 13.5 million out-of-school children, adding that no nation would develop and grow with this number of children out of school.

“We should be able to proffer solutions to this problem in a manner that will be sustainable to ensure that all stakeholders—government, civil society, communities and religious bodies—put hands together to make sure that we take off the children from the streets,” he said.

He said lack of access to education remained the major cause of poverty and underdevelopment in any country.

The Children of Africa Leadership and Values Development Initiative (CALDEV) organised the event with the theme “Rebuilding Nigerians Through Investment in Children’s Education, Welfare and Security”.

(NAN)