The Federal Government has described the decision by Oyo State government to reopen schools from June 29, 2020 as insensitive.
According to the Nation Newspaper, the government said that this could increase the number of COVID-19 infections in the state.
Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, stated this during the briefing by the Presidential Task Force on covid -19 on Monday.
Oyo state Governor, Seyi Makinde had reeled out plans to reopen schools, worship centres and others against the federal government’s directive on closure of schools.
The minister said the Federal Ministry of Education did not give out any guideline to the state government to reopen schools.
Nwajiuba noted that the primary responsibility of state governors is to secure the lives of their citizens including in the face of a pandemic.
He added that like all other sub-nationals, governors were under the constitution of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
While stressing that government could not afford to reopen schools at this time, the minister noted that reopening of schools could lead to the exposure of teachers, the students, drivers, cooks, vendors and their family and friends to the dreaded virus.
Nwajiuba said: “Out of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, there are actually few local governments with a lot of this burden and therefore it is easy to get the perception around the edges of the country that some things are not happening because they are not happening within our immediate locality.
“But we must appreciate that the primary purpose of governors is the security of his citizens. Public health is key and primary and in that primary security delivery, they (Governors), are always extremely cautious in making any pronouncements around this because the education sector holds the largest number of infrastructure in the country; a good 138,000 primary schools around the country.
“There are clearly 600 all kinds of institutions awarding certificates all around Nigeria there are just lots of it. And at any given time in Nigeria, there are 2 million people attaining one form of education or the other.
“For you to even begin to decide to unleash this in the public in the face of a pandemic is to be a very bit insensitive
“The least we can do at the moment is to keep our children, our most priced assets, the future of Nigeria under lock and key first. When we are sure that it is safe to release them, gladly we will.”
