Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, has issued a stark warning that persistent attacks on schools and prolonged closures of educational facilities in insecurity-affected areas were compounding Nigeria’s already severe education crisis and risked permanently denying entire generations of children access to learning.
Akume delivered the warning at the first triannual meeting of the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council in Abuja, held under the theme “Religious Literacy for National Cohesion,” where he argued that the intersection of insecurity, misinformation, and religious intolerance demanded a coordinated national response that brought together educational institutions, faith communities, media organizations, and traditional rulers.
He called for stronger and more consistently enforced government policies on safe schools and violence-free learning environments, describing them as non-negotiable prerequisites for meaningful educational progress. “A child cannot learn fraternity in fear; a nation cannot preach literacy while schools are under threat,” he said.
He linked the threat of insecurity in schools to the broader challenge of misinformation and hate speech, arguing that religious literacy had to be accompanied by media and information literacy if Nigeria was to build a generation capable of exercising critical judgment and rejecting incendiary narratives.
With the 2027 general election approaching, Akume specifically charged NIREC, traditional rulers, faith-based organizations, and youth associations with a moral responsibility to strengthen grassroots networks of collaboration, promote peaceful coexistence, and protect communities from political violence before, during, and after the polls.
