First lady and the Nigerian Girl Child Education Project (1)

[Nuruddeen]

FIRST LADY AND THE NIGERIAN GIRL CHILD EDUCATION PROJECT (1)
By
Jibo Nura

I read in one of the recent national girl child education retreat documents Hajiya Turai Musa Yar'adua's intention to change the life of the Nigerian girl into a new leaf. It was quite interesting, especially while reading from an initiative that very few Nigerian past ladies of high ranks-and-file thought it worthwhile. Indeed, the idea of building of free education homes and sustainable enabling environment for the poor and needy girl child that always gallivant on the streets with trays on their heads; hawking groundnuts, bread, maize, akara or peddling GSM recharge cards, is highly commendable!
Whenever, a reflection is made on how many Nigerian well-to-do people have given ample educational support and sustainable livelihood to the Nigerian teenage girls, one's heart bleeds because of the way they are left stranded without any hope for future.
It is an established fact that education in any society is a vehicle for change. It has been used for changing behaviours, which have positive value to the individual and the society. The education of a woman in a society is more relevant to the society than that of a man, because no country can boast of meaningful development when majority of its womenfolk are illiterate.
Today, out of 140 million Nigerians, about 105 million live in abject poverty. And more than 7 million children, mostly girls, do not go to primary school. Their health status is very poor to the extent that one in every five girls dies before reaching their fifth birthday due largely to poor Nigeria's health system that is rated in the bottom five in the world. Therefore, there is the need to take the issue of girl child education very seriously. Joint effort by first lady and international NGOs such as DFID and UNICEF will give some ray of hope to Girls' Education Project (GEP) i.e. via a comprehensive strategy for the acceleration of their didactic demands.
Nonetheless, girls' condition and standard of living as outlined in Article 1 of the Declaration of the World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA; 1990) in Jomtien, Thailand, affirmed that "Every person, child, youth and adult shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities designed to meet their basic needs". One way of saving their own situation is to flag-off massive campaign towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on basic education at local, state and federal government levels. It is by so doing that we can provide virile learning support, proper care and guidance that can make girls' poverty of knowledge history. Certainly, there is need for investment in human capital whereby girl child development has to be based on United Nations Decade for Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI).
The first lady should continue to explore and develop the concept of sustaining the idea of improving the condition of girls to the fullest, because their lives are day in day out becoming educationally and socially frustrated. The new sustainable educational development strategy that has been imbibed by developed and other developing nations, have now gained currency since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development(The Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And quite a number of countries have put it into practical application. Though Nigeria has all along been committed at various levels together with local and foreign NGOs in the form of legislation, declarations, reforms and even budget, but very little achievement and consideration is given to the policy formulation and implementation strategy of girl child education that has hitherto remain  but a mirage to majority of innocent Nigerian girls.
Indeed, the recent visit of first lady to wives of the Bauchi State Governor on the "matter at issue" is really a good omen. Other first ladies should therefore extend same educational courtesies by striking a balance between the human resource development need to improve the education status and well-being of younger women and future generations.
The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) drawn up by UNICEF, Parliamentarians, Lawyers and local NGOs strongly emphasized on eliminating all forms of discrimination against the girl-child in education, health, and all activities that relate to both men and women. The concern of the convention is to see that girls receive career and vocational guidance at all levels in rural and urban areas. Access to teaching facilities and equipment should be made easier on the same basis as men. Women should have opportunities for study scholarship at national level and abroad.
Already there is a growing concern over the issue of girl child education, which is presumed by the majority of people as more of a privilege than a right. This view is fundamentally misconstrued by the male gender that girls or women generally, are always considered as inferior to boys or men and their ability to perform and function effectively in education is hampered by socio-cultural, economic and religious reasons, which will later be highlighted in this conventional space.
Poverty also posits a lot of threats to girl child education in Nigeria by preventing families from enrolling all or some of their children in school. This is common among low-income earning groups of Northern Nigeria, especially men who tend to marry many wives and produce several children than they could educate and take care of. In this kind of scenario, usually it is only the male children that are sent to school whereas the girls are left at home with their mothers to contribute to the maintenance of the household. They are left with variety of tasks ranging from caring for siblings to grinding millet and washing clothes etc.
Therefore, educational development that meets the needs of the present Nigerian girl child has to be pursued without compromise over the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. Here, two key concepts are paramount. First, their "needs" and "aspiration" must have overriding priority and influence. Second, the limitations imposed by most of Nigerian families on the educational pursuit of their young girls have to change in order to meet and fit into the prevailing condition that is currently obtained in developed societies.
The first lady should try as much as possible to remain steadfast by intensifying effort to make parents understand that girl child education is not in any way a denial of moral values or ethical responsibilities as misconceived by critics of western education. Girls' education is nothing other than recognition of the educational reality that no serious deliberation on the matter in Nigeria has been carried out with genuine commitment and awareness within which the girls' rights to education exist, and within which they are violated.
The attempt here is basically to propose a new perspective with which the girls' education rights can be grasped, in order to understand much more coherently the nature, pattern and root causes of these educational rights violations in Nigeria. Such a proposition is necessary if we are to effectively use the available data and evidence in order to come up with sound recommendations as how to prevent or minimize the violations of not only girl but also male child education in the future.
The urge therefore is to implore her Excellency, Hajiya Turai Musa Yar'adua to kindly co-opt the issue of Almajirai into the girl child education project. An issue that previous Nigeria's governments woefully failed to tackle squarely. The sight of a multitude of under-aged school children, in tattered clothes, bowl-in-hand, scavenging and soliciting for food on the streets of our urban centres is not only unsettling ,but goes to challenge the very essence of humanity and bases of our social existence.

Jibo Nura works with MOBAT Quants' Consultants and Project Managers, Yankari Holiday Resort and Safari Project, Bauchi State. E-mail: jibonura@yahoo.com. Tel: 08063234772

[Dan-Borno]

Is it Jibo Nura writing or Nuruddeen posting on behalf
of jibo nura?

[HUSNAA]

Hmm Good point DB. Its his doppelganger  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D