From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, New York
Governor of Gombe, Inuwa Yahaya has met with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), at the margins of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA78), to seek support to tackle the issue of out-of-school children which he said has hit 600,000 in his state
Speaking to journalists at the Millennium Hotel in New York, the governor said he also met with the United Nations Population Fund, and other agencies of the United Nations in order to seek the support required that will help his administration uplift the lives and livelihoods of his people.
UNICEF had in 2022 released data stating that Nigeria has the highest rate of out-of-school children with at least 10.5 million children, the highest rate in the world.
Asked about the importance and what he was seeking to achieve with some of the sideline meetings in New York, Yahaya said: “Well, as a subnational, whatever affects the nation, Nigeria affects us. In fact, it is a combination of the states that makes the Federation. So we’ll be meeting and engaging other world leaders to support Mr. President in order to deliver on the needs of Nigerian people, but specifically for Gombe, I have been able to meet with UNICEF, UNFPA, and other agencies of the United Nations in order to make sure that we get the support required so that we can uplift the lives and livelihoods of our people.”
Asked about the specific support he was asking, the Gombe governor said: “Specifically in terms of UNFPA, in terms of supporting the democratic development in various strata, agencies like UNICEF, we are seeking support especially for the girl-child education. Yes, especially in the Northeast subregion where there’s a lot of challenges with regards to insurgency and the consequential effect of displacement of the people and the background of the people not really engaging in terms of Western education.
“So we’re collaborating so that those two issues at least will be resolved once and for all in the near future”.
Asked his target in terms of bringing down the numbers, Yahaya said: “By 2019, according to the UNICEF account, there were 550,000 out of school children in Gombe alone and as of today, the numbers have risen up because of the settlement or rehabilitation of some people from the displaced states. You know, we share a boundary with the remaining five states of the Northeast.
“Therefore, most of them have relocated due to Gombe’s security and safety, adding to our own issues, and we must choose where and how. There ought to be around 600,000 by now, in my estimation. But in the past three or four years, we have been able to accept 350,000, and our goal is to ensure that each child in Gombe receives a quality education for free, at the very least up to the basic education, in accordance with the principles of universal free education as guided by the Sustainable Development Goals.”