Less than five days to the kick off of the voters registration exercise, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega yesterday gave an insight into why the commission requested for the closure of all schools in the country during the period of voters registration exercise in order to guarantee the safety of students and pupils whose schools would be used for the exercise.

At joint press conference with the Minister of State for Education, Kenneth Gbagi at the commission's headquarters in Abuja, Jega explained that the decision to include private schools in the planned closure was to ensure 'equity and uniformity in the education calendar.

Jega said the decision to close all schools in the country during the voters registration exercise has sparked controversy in the country with some interests groups threatening to take the government to court to challenge the decision.

Explaining the rational behind the decision, Jega said the bulk of the 119, 976 polling stations across the country is located in public schools and allowing schools to be in session while the registration exercise is going on would "disrupt" school activities and may put the security of the pupils and students at risk.

"We are concerned about the security of the pupils and students during the exercise" he said.

He explained that after the decision was arrived at by government, the commission wrote to all the governors of the thirty six states of the federation soliciting their cooperation in the successful implementation of the shut down order.

Jega rationalized that public schools constitute about 70% of the schools in the country adding that it would be unfair to allow private schools which constitute about 30%,to be in session while the public schools are closed.

"If 70 percent of the schools are going to be affected, it does not make sense to allow only 30 percent of the schools to be in session. If it were only 25 percent of the schools that would be affected, we would not have closed all the schools. It is easier to close the school at the same time for the sake of equity and to maintain the equilibrium in the school system" he said.

Jega said the commission had written to all the state governors to help enforce the closure of schools adding that if some state governors opt to keep the schools open during the exercise, it may have been as a result of a "communication problems and that would be unfortunate".

In his brief comment, the Minister of state for education, Mr Kenneth Gbagi noted that "some people see elections as a do or die affair and we do not want our children to be exposed to danger" during the registration exercise if schools are left open."

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