UNICEF, Sultan Foundation partner on girl child education in Northern Nigeria

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By; Funmi Aderinto, Kaduna.
As part of its contribution in developing the “girl child” in Nigeria, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development,  met with the education representative of the nineteen Northern states of Nigeria to review the educational sector.
Declaring the meeting open, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar III who chaired the occasion, stressed the need for the girl child to be educated.
According to him, “UNICEF and Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development underscore the importance of educating the girls and to remove the perceptions that the place of the girl child is in the kitchen or the home.
“We believe an educated girl is better in bringing up better family and citizenry to the world because we all know the importance of our mothers.
“They trained and brought us up. If you check the lifestyle of an individual if it is good, check the family background; and if bad check the family background. The women play that important role of bringing up the society.
“In Nigeria we don’t pay much attention to girl child education. As we all know, an educated woman is more an asset than uneducated one or even educated man, you must be knowledgeable to lead. To rule you must be knowledgeable.
“The girl child education has become very important especially now that the world is facing social problems, and Nigeria is part of that global village”.
In her remark, Jean Gough, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, noted that education is the cornerstone of everything, and without education, there cannot be reduction in poverty in any country.
She said “Education is the hardest sector to transform. Children in the northeast have lost two years of education. We know Nigeria is working to achieving the goal of President Muhammadu Buhari in transforming the education sector. We hope this year 2016 will be a year of true change.
“Change can only happen when leaders in Nigeria are in partnership with all section of education and when proper action is taken” she asserted.

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