Saving the girl child

Living in a very safe environment where there is no fear, our lives and properties are secured is the wish of every individual. According to late Nelson Mandela, “safety and security don’t just happen; they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” That should be the utmost priority of every leader and government. In Nigeria, the girl child lives in fear of the unknown as she is faced with many challenges which includes: child trafficking, rape, gender discrimination, illiteracy, early marriage, prostitution, unwanted pregnancies, abduction, domestic violence and so many others.

Most countries in the world see education as a basic human need and in Nigeria also, education is a basic human right that has been recognized since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of human rights. Education is one of the fundamental rights of individuals. Unfortunately, so many young girls in most part of the world are deprived of this opportunity especially in Nigeria. The rate at which young girls drop out of school this few years is worrisome and calls for concern. The country’s inability to checkmate the devastating challenges of poverty, unemployment, gender inequality and insecurity is due to the poor state of its educational sector.

• Wamakko delivers polling units for APC

According to the Director-General of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, NIEPA, Prof. Lilian Salami posits that, one third of all girls are out of school in Nigeria, amounting to over 5.5 million school age girls not in school. The North is the worst hit as it has the highest number of female school drop outs. UNICEF launched the G4G Initiative programme in September 2017 to help support girls to remain in school and improve their learning abilities.  Regrettably, the government investment in education is still low, despite the significant impact of both national and international intervention in the sector to forestall this menace.

To this end, I implore the government to save the Nigerian girl child by providing free education for them because education bestows on women a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, standards, attitudes, competence and skills. Let’s say no to illiteracy, no to early child marriage, no to prostitution, no to poverty, no to gender inequality and no to anything that has held us down as women.

The young girls should have the mentality of because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail no one will say she doesn’t have what it takes, they will say women don’t have what it takes. Thus, the time for saving the Nigerian girl child is now.

Deborah Phillips,

Kano.