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*Why I am eyeing the legislature
By Collins Ajibola
Females like their male counterparts have the right to education and skill acquisition, the right to choice and self-actualisation. But what we see in most societies today is the other way round. Educating the girl child translates to better health for the future generation, reduction in child morbidity and mortality thus, triggering a snowball effect of achieving all other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a viable manner.
An advocate of Youth development and Girl-child education, Honourable Musa Hassan, affirmed this in a chat with www.gongnews.net in Abuja.
“The girl child needs to be educated to acquire knowledge and skills needed to advance her status for social interactions and self-improvement. The girl child education also prepares her to face the reality in society and teaches her to be a good wife and mother. When she is educated, she realises the full potentials endowed in her; she discovers to be whoever and whatever she wants to be. With education, she would break the shell of ignorance and open that of self-discovery.”
Hon Musa further stated that his fulfillment as human being is to see many children be in school instead of roaming the streets and hawking.
“As a human being, I have great passion for such. What many of us fail to understand is that there is great strength and advantage for us as a society and country when we educate the girl child. Females help in modelling the society, not only the men. In fact, the women model the society better than the men if I must say it.”
He stated that one of the reasons he wants to be a legislator in the next political dispensation is to sponsor bills and advocate for free education in reality and not mirage that we have around now.
“Free education and scholarships should be given to children, especially the girl child and the less privileged. One thing I must say is that, we have too many children roaming up and down the streets and that is one critical area I will ensure we put an end to. Every child should as a matter of fact be in school and learning.
They are the future. Rather than seeing them hawk products, I will prefer they are in school, so that they too can benefit from what I benefited from as a young child that has modeled me to become who I am today. Without education I wouldn’t have been in this position nor enlightened. Education gives us the ability to differentiate between what is good and what is bad.”
Hon. Musa added that parents must always be up and doing in supporting their children, no matter the challenges.
“I want to use this medium to advise parents to keep encouraging their children. No matter how bad a child is doing in school, they should still encourage them. As human beings, we all have aspirations and targets, so we have to stand by the children always. The fact is that there is still good aspect in every bad situation.”
He however urged all Nigerians to be patient and prayerful in this economic hard time, as tough time never last, but tough people.
“Nigerians should be focused and patient. We should be prayerful and look unto God. To the youths especially, it is unfortunate that we have not been given the opportunity to serve, and that is one fundamental issue. We should be kept abreast of happenings in the government. Nigerians should be given the opportunity to know what is happening. We should not just be like spectators. But surely we will be out of the difficult situation.”
