‘Direct demand for girl-child education to parents not govt’

The wife of Bauchi State governor, Hajiya Aisha Bala Mohammed, has charged the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) to channel its demand for girl child education to parents and not the government.

The first lady, who stated this when she hosted selected girls from across the country for the celebration of the 2020 International Day of the Girl Child in Bauchi, decried that most parents in her local government area of Alkaleri did not believe in educating the girl child.

She said most of the parents believed the girlchild should be married off before they finished school.

“My local government is the last in terms of girl child education. Yet, the girl child right is enshrined in both the Holy Qur’an and Holy Bible. Parents must ensure the welfare of their wards."

“Apologies to UNICEF, this demand for a girl child to me, should be directed to parents and not the government.

Government can only ensure that the parents provide this welfare," she said.

She also berated men who divorce their wives for no genuine reason and vowed to lead an awareness campaign against the bad practices in Bauchi.

She lamented that at the end of such divorce, the girlchild is left in the middle of suffering.

"Some of them (men) feel it’s a pleasure. That’s why we are facing some of these problems. You see a man beating, abusing and putting too much pressure on his wife in the presence of his son; what lesson is he passing across?

“Some of them feel they can marry today and divorce tomorrow and nobody will say anything about it. They know that their neighbours will still give their daughters out to them in marriage. They think every girl is a leisure; they feel that the girl child is like a piece of cloth that can be used and dumped anyhow,” she stated.