Ms Faith Adayilo, the Winner of 2015/16 Nigerian Miss Gbagyi beauty pageant, has called on the Federal Government to support girl-child education for national development.
Adayilo made the appeal during a visit with the organisers of the beauty pageant to the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Mr Abdullahi Galadima, on Monday.
The beauty Queen advised government to invest more in girl-child education for nation building and to reduce street begging in some parts of the country.
“Education goes far beyond the four walls of a school, but adequate empowerment is another category of educating a child.
“It is often said that if you educate a woman, you educate the entire society, while if you educate a man, you educate a person.
“The girls’ phenomenon is a less attentive issue especially their welfare and role in nation building and that is wrong.
“Girls in Nigeria are often seen moving around in towns and villages hawking items of paltry value that hardly justifies the hours spent in the burning sun.
“Sometimes girls become vulnerable to harassment from men and other dangerous vices on the street.
“Parents of the girl child especially mothers consider their daughters as a tool for generating income due to poverty and illiteracy instead of sending them to school,” she said.
Adayilo said they were sponsoring a programme on the Gbagyi girl child education to sensitise the indigenes of FCT on the relevance of education.
She said the group was into empowering the Gbagyi girl child education to reduce female illiteracy percentage in the country, urging the federal government to support the programme.
She noted that Nigeria was one of the countries listed amongst developing nations with the inability to harness resources towards nation building like the girl-child education.
“In the needs analysis that informed the design of Girls’ Education Project (GEP), it became clear that illiterate women in the focus communities were keen to become literate due to proper investment.
“The NGO sector constitutes a good delivery alternative especially in some parts of the country where access is not easy.
“All these are geared towards achieving girl child education for the development of every nation,” Adayilo said.
Responding, the chairman commended the group for the advocacy and encouraged them to do more for the country.
Galadima said that gender equity in education has been one of the main goals targeted by the country and urged the group to work toward realising the goals.
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