Barrister Ayah Paul Abine, onetime Presidential candidate has agreed with the Coffin Revolution Leader, Mancho Bibixy Tse that there can be no nobler cause than campaigning for children to return to school.
The former CPDM Member of Parliament took to Facebook Monday, July 8, 2019 to join his voice with that of the imprisoned Mancho.
Ayah writes: « It has been published that Mancho Bibixy has launched a campaign for children to return to school next September. There can be no nobler cause! BUT one major cause for concern remains.
True is it that pictures we have seen of children braving it to school in several war-torn countries, not the least devastated Syria. Also it is common knowledge that we are what we are today due predominantly to our acquisition of knowledge from formal education. Not even the dishonest, therefore, would doubt that formal education is primordial to achievements in life.
It is inevitable that properties are destroyed in every war. Even such facilities as hospitals, orphanages, churches are so destroyed at times. But such destruction is inadvertent: it is accidental (not intended). The consequences of such accidents are generally referred to as collateral damage – something else was intended but some undesirable consequences have resulted.
« That, however, is not the case with the Anglophone War where homes are deliberately razed to the ground (…) resulting, in several cases, in entire villages erased from the surface of the earth! It is not the case here where schools are attacked and/or burnt down on purpose! It is not the case here where the wounded are extracted from hospitals and put to death through extrajudicial killings with impunity! The case here is different where homes are broken into and innocent persons are callously shot and killed!
« What is more and all the worse, the main targeted persons here are the young. No-one is unaware that even babies have been shot and killed in their sleep. Needless talking of young male youth seen in motion!
« In the face of such prevailing insecurity, where and how is the child safe??? One would dare say that, in the absence of an official truce and concrete demonstration of the official valuing of human lives, especially Amba human lives, invitation to return to school is akin to invitation to dare death!!! The government must do much more!!!
« In the final analysis, then, it is for every parent to evaluate the safety for their children in school and take the necessary decisions. What some quarreled with in the past was the Amba Authorities placing general embargo on children going to school. Now that the embargo has been lifted, one would dare to opine that attendance may not be a collective resolution as safety remains highly staked.
« We may not be seen to be luring people’s innocent children into life-threatening circumstances: killing for the fun of it! Making soft targets even softer! »
Mancho Bibixy however argues that if children are safe at other non-school activities, they should be safe at school also.
