Shettima tasks elite on girl-child education

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has urged Nigerian elite to educate the downtrodden and encourage girl child education in the society, saying education is the only panacea to violence and poverty.

He made the remarks in Abuja at the graduation of 73 beneficiaries of the Girl Child Concerns (GCC) female students scholarship scheme, from Bethel Secondary School Jos and Ulul Albab Islamic School Katsina, among others.

Forty-three of the beneficiaries were the abducted girls from Chibok, who escaped from the Boko-Haram.

The governor said statistics from the World Bank and the European Union said that the insurgency has created 54,911 widows and 52,311 orphans in addition to several hundred other vulnerable Nigerians.

“One of the painful aspects of the Chibok abduction tragedy was that it exposed my greatest concern to the poor quality of our public schools. My priority has always been about the rescue of all our abducted girls but then I live with a huge embarrassment concerning the quality of public schools in Borno state, as is the case in many northern Nigerian states,” he said.

The board chairperson of Girl Child Concerns, Dr Mairo Mandara, said with the support from Borno State government, GCC was able to support the Chibok girls that were abducted in 2014 and kept them out of lime light for the last three years, ensuring they got quality education and skill acquisition.