The Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Mohammed Mera, has said that insecurity, poverty and illiteracy are among major factors affecting girl child education in the North.
He then urged relevant authorities to continue to step up efforts in campaigning for girl-child education in the Nigeria and the North in particular.
Alhaji Mera who is also the Coordinator, Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development, stated this while speaking with newsmen in Kaduna after the launch of the National Network of Keeping Girls In School (KGIS). He said the aim of the programme was to discuss why girls are not in school, what stopped them from not completing their education, to resolve the Issue, and how to keep girls educated for the benefit of the society.
He said; “We have many challenges why our girls drop out of school. These include illiteracy, economy, and insecurity. We are here to know what we can do as individuals and what government can do to address the issues, how do we keep our girls in school for the good of our society? At the end of the day each state will come up with a work plan.
“We have been grouped into states at the end we will come up with a solution. Borno is the most affected state because of insecurity, but we have Zamfara, Gombe, Sokoto and Kebbi which according to statistics are the worst when it comes to girl child education, our next tour will be in Ethiopia where girl-child school enrollment is also very low.”
Also speaking, the Lead Advocate for keeping girls in school in Africa, Dr. Mairo Mandara, said the campaign was to ensure that every girl completes at least secondary school education.
“Our objective is to ensure how to raise awareness to ensure that every girl in Africa complete at least secondary education and in the process she learns skills.
“In this unique campaign we do something that is different, we all know that for years, a lot of money has been spent by governments, international partners and the civil society in trying to ensure that girls complete secondary school but we realized that the missing links have not been put in the forefront.
“So, we are getting the traditional rulers and religious leaders to be in the forefront. We will only be their followers, so government will support the initiative of traditional and religious leaders, young people and women groups will also support them.”