BY NONYELUM JULIET
Katsina
The Federal Government of Nigeria has been urged to speed up the process of evacuating Nigerian students from crisis- ridden Khartoum, Sudan to save their lives and mitigate the level of trauma amongst the students.
The call was made by the Katsina State Commissioner for Education, Prof Badamasi Lawal in an interview with newsmen, Friday evening.
Although the Nigerian government has expressed deep concern over the situation of the students trapped in the Sudan crisis and making efforts to evacuate them, the effort has not yielded significant results so far.
Prof. Badamasi lamented that many parents, especially those whose children and wards are still in Sudan are so worried about their safety most especially that enemy planes are continuously hovering over them at Afrique University.
The situation creates psychological fear in the minds of the students and making them discouraged in the pursuit of education in foreign lands. Those students who have interest in studying abroad are not given a good signal.
Prof Badamasi called on the international community, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nation and the African Union to step up actions to ensure peace returns to Sudan to avoid the escalation of the humanitarian crisis in the sub region.
He however, advised all Nigerians to intensify prayers for normalcy to return to Sudan and all countries experiencing crises. indeed he is appealing to those saddled with responsibility of evacuating the students to leave no stone unturned in guaranteeing their safety and bringing them back home, Nigeria.
“The Nigerian students are without food, money and shelter. One could imagine the difficulty of these young adults. Only ten out the forty buses were visibly seen conveying students to Egypt for possible evacuation to Nigeria. What happens to the remaining buses is yet to be ascertained.
“The Federal Government through Nigerian Embassy in Sudan should stem the tide and provide more buses for student’s evacuation. The deal of hiring or chattering the buses should be concretized to speed up the process. The situation on ground dashed the hopes of the students, parents and concerned Nigerians that the trapped Nigerian will leave Khartoum soon. Stich in time saves nine”.
