From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has decried the incidence of Gender Based Violence in the country, stating the girl child needs to be protected.
Kalu, who spoke while receiving a delegation from a Non Governmental Organization, the Female Student Vanguard for Girl Child Education in Nigeria, which paid him a courtesy, in Abuja, expressed concerns about the high number of girls, who are uneducated.
The deputy speaker, while noting that several policies geared at addressing gender inequality in education have not yielded the desired results, called for the establishment of more schools in rural areas.
According to him, “the long distances girls have to travel to school, expose them to gender based violence, including sexual harassment like you mentioned such as rape. The closer we bring the schools to the communities the better. Within every 5 kilometres there should be a school. So that girls in the rural areas will not be exposed to this violence”.
Kalu, while thanking the group for honouring him with an icon of exemplary leadership award, promised to adopt the Female Students Vanguard for Girl Child education as one of his pet projects.
“Talking about girl child education, education, it is a fundamental right, an important tool for empowerment and development of any nation. In Nigeria, gender inequality in education remains a major concern. I appreciate you for taking up this advocacy to provide a solution. I am proud of you people.
“Many don’t know what girls go through. Many comfortable girls or women don’t know what indigent girls go through in the rural areas. For you to set out to be their voices to make sure their basic needs are met, you’re champions in my eyes.
“It is not only happening in the North, it is happening in the South and every other parts of the country. It ought not to be so, we need to take steps towards reducing the percentage. Boko Haram abduction of school girls from Chibok in Borno State in 2014 sent shock waves around the world, we are yet to recover from the shock.
“There is hope that the current administration will right the wrongs of past administrations in regards to the girl child. I am sure very soon the percentage will reduce from what it is now to a manageable percentage. ”
Earlier, the president of the group, Khadija Sulaiman Gidado, told the Deputy that the challenges facing the girl child in Nigeria were numerous.
Gidado said ” It is now made to be believed that education is a privilege to women because not all of them has access to it.
“Some people in Nigeria see education as a commodity. Forty percent of girls ages 9-12 in northern Nigeria for a start have never been to school. One in three women and girls experience physical and sexual violence in their life time. Over nine point five Nigerian girls are not in schools.”