Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has called on well-meaning citizens of the country to support initiatives to help out-of-school children.
Mr. Atiku, who is also the founder of the American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola, said the recent report which showed Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school kids was depressing.
The former vice president who made his feelings known in a statement made available by his media office decried Nigeria’s educational crisis and called for the declaration of a state of emergency in the sector.
While arguing that the government cannot solve all the problems of the country,< Mr. Atiku called for support for programmes like the Feed and Read initiative of the AUN.
According to him, the Feed and Read Programme initiated in 2015 was designed to provide a decent meal per day for the most vulnerable of children in Yola, Adamawa State.
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He said the project also aimed to give the kids exposure to classroom experience where they are taught Basic English, Arithmetic and Hygiene.
Mr. Atiku said the Feed and Read programme was a response to the effect of destruction and displacement caused by the Boko Haram menace in the North-East area of the country which further escalated a surge in the number of out-of-school children in the zone.
“I have always been bothered about the parlous state of education in the North.
When I was Vice President I called a conference of all the 19 state governors in the North to discuss how we could address the problem of lack of adequate access to formal education by a teeming number of the young population in the region.
“Bad as the situation was, the Boko Haram destruction tore apart the little that was left of the infrastructure for formal education especially in the North-East.
The dire situation caused the AUN to champion the Read and Feed initiative which has received tremendous support from the Irish government and the Atiku Abubakar Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Development.
“I personally had to intervene by giving encouragement to this initiative, ensuring that the meals meet the standard of a balanced diet for school children.
I eat food with these children to show that the food is safe and to lure more of them into the programme. I do this every time I visit the school.
“I am happy when I see these children return a formal greeting in English language and when they solve simple arithmetic.
There remains a large swath of distance to be covered. Nothing is too much to give in providing formal education to all children who are yet to be captured by the education infrastructure that the government is trying assiduously to create.
“That is why I implore more Nigerians who can afford it, to stretch a helping hand to these children. Any amount, no matter how little, will go a long way in making a difference in providing a good education for the most vulnerable children not only in the North-East but in other places in the country.”
