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28 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2022
Almajiri, Out-of-School Children:
Reps recall Jonathan's effort,
heed Obasanjo's advise on
education
By Levinus
Nwabughiogu
ABUJA-Barely 24 hours after
former President Olusegun
Obasanjo raised the alarm
that the huge number of outof-school
children posed a
threat to national security, the
House of Representatives has
passed for second reading a
bill seeking to establish National
Commission for Almajiri
Education and out-ofschool
children.
It will be recalled that the
government of former President
Goodluck Jonathan also
gave the almajirai a facelift,
establishing schools to educate
them.
The bill was sponsored by
Shehu Kakale and 18 other
lawmakers.
In his lead debate at yesterday's
plenary, Kakale noted
that Nigeria was among
countries with millions of
children that were out of
school.
He said: "Nigeria is among
many other countries that is
confronted with the phenomenon
of out-of- school children.
As you may be aware,
millions of children and teenagers
across the country are
currently out of school, due to
one reason or the other.
"Mr Speaker, as at September
2022, out-of-school children
in Nigeria was estimated
to be 18.5 million by the
United Nations Children's
Fund, UNICEF,. However, the
Universal Basic Education
Commission, UBEC, estimated
the same to be 13.2 million.
The lawmaker also gave
staggering statistics of the figures
in many states of Nigeria,
recalling Jonathan's efforts
to build 157 schools for the
almajirai. "The statistics appear
even grimmer, judging
from the rough estimate of
out-of-school children per
state in the country.
"Mr. Speaker and my colleagues,
the digest of basic
education statistics by the
Universal Basic Education
Commission, UBEC, revealed
that 10 of Nigeria's 36
states were home to more than
half of Nigeria's out-of-school
children, as at 2018.
''The 10 states at the top of
the chart had about 5.2 million
of the country's approximately
10.2 million out-ofschool
children at that time.
In no particular order, Kano
State had the most with
989,234, followed by Akwa-
Ibom (581,800), Katsina
(536,122) and Kaduna
•Pass bill to establish
commission for both
(524,670) followed closely.
Taraba (499,923), Sokoto
(436,570), Yobe (427,230),
Zamfara (422,214) and
Bauchi (354,373) were other
states that ranked high on the
list. States with the lowest
numbers of out-of-school children
were Cross River with
97,919, Abia with 91, 548,
Kwara with 84,247, Enugu
with 82,051, Bayelsa with
53,079, FCT with 52,972 and
Ekiti with 50,945.
"Mr. Speaker, several challenges
are associated with the
high number of out-of-school
children in Nigeria. All out of
school children in Nigeria are
at risk of exploitation, vulnerable
to recruitment by insurgents,
human traffickers and
by other criminal elements in
the society.
''In fact, in your address to
members of the House of Representatives
in this hallowed
chamber on January 28,
2020, Mr. Speaker, you were
very clear on the rising number
of out-of-school children and
the danger it portends for the
Nigerian state.
"Mr Speaker and my colleagues,
as I draw this debate
to a close, permit me to reiterate
the fact that education is
pivotal to human development
and the growth of a nation.
It was in recognition of
this that Dr. Goodluck Ebele
Jonathan had to build 157
Almajiri Model Schools to
enable the education of the
almajirai in Nigeria.
"There cannot be a functional
society without a functional
educational system. Accordingly,
the establishment
of the proposed commission
will ensure that the almajirai
receive sound education that
will shield them from exploitation
by criminal elements.
''It is in line with the foregoing,
I urge you, Mr. Speaker
and my respected colleagues,
to support that this Bill be read
the second time.''
In his contribution, Speaker
of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila,
who said the bill
was worthy of passage, said:
"The sponsor and I worked
very closely last year on the
issue of almajiri. I commend
him for this proactiveness.
''Anything that has to do with
education in this 9th assembly,
we have been very proactive.
Education has been a priority
in our legislative agenda.”
We have just concluded a
two-day summit on tertiary
education. We hope that at the
end of the day, we will make
recommendations."
Naira appreciates to N445.38/
$ in I&E window
By Elizabeth Adegbesan
THE naira yesterday appreciated to N445.38 per
dollar in the Investors and Exporters (I&E)
window.
Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative
exchange rate for the window fell to N445.38 per
dollar from N445.67 per dollar last week Friday,
indicating 29 Kobo appreciation for the naira.
However , the naira depreciated by N5 in the
parallel market yesterday. Vanguard findings from
black market traders showed that the exchange rate
for the market rose to N785 per dollar from N780
per dollar last week Friday.
BILATERAL
RELATIONS:
Italian Ambassador
to Nigeria , Stefano
De Leo (left) with the
Flag Officer Commanding
Western
Naval Command,
WNC Rear Admiral
Yakubu Wambai,
during a coutersy visit
by the former, at the
WNC, Apapa, Lagos,
as part of activities
lined up for the port of
call visit of the Italian
Navy Ship, NAVE
BORSINI, yesterday.
I’ll emulate Sweden, Rwanda in appointing women
into govt – ATIKU
By John Alechenu
THE presidential candi
date of Peoples Democratic
Party, Atiku Abubakar,
has promised to emulate
the policy of gender
balance in the appointment
of women into sensitive cabinet
positions while renewing
his pledge for an all inclusive
government, if elected
Ȧtiku said this during the
inauguration of the PDP
Women Campaign Council,
in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him, women
have proven themselves as
less corrupt and more committed
to the democratic
process because female voters
are known to outnumber
their male folk in successive
elections.
He recalled a trip he undertook
to Sweden while in
Why I approved redesign of Naira locally — BUHARI
Continues from Page 5
The CBN governor said
Nigeria had gone cashless
and that security agencies
would monitor people making
withdrawal at the counter
to know how much withdrawn
and also monitor the
usage of the money.
He said there was no
need to insinuate that the
policy was targeted at anyone,
adding that the CBN
was determined to ensure
that the provision of the law
on volume of money one
should carry was followed.
"The world has moved to
cashless economy and the
CBN has moved to cashless
economy. We will restrain
the volume of cash
someone will withdraw
over the counter. We will
follow up with the person's
data to know the reason for
such withdrawal," he said.
For those calling for extension
of time for the usage
of the old notes, the
CBN boss said: "We will
not go with people that want
extension of time. From today,
this currency that was
re-issued will become a legal
tender."
He said there was no local
government area in the
country where there was no
bank agent, adding that
there was over one million
point across the country
that people could go and
deposit the old notes.
He also assured that the
new notes could not be
counterfeited because of the
features in them.
Distribution to
CBN branches
begins today, Currency
Operations
Director says
Also speaking on the issue
yesterday, the Director
of Currency Operations,
Mr. Bello Umar, said:
“From Thursday, that is tomorrow
(today), we will start
distribution to CBN
branches across the country,
so that whenever we
are set to launch, maybe at
a later date, we already
have the notes across the
country.”
The new notes are expected
to be in circulation
as from December 15, and
will circulate side-by-side
with the old notes until January,
31 2023, when the latter
would cease to be legal
tender. Mr. Umar, said,
however, that the apex
bank was concerned that the
rush to deposit old notes
had not yet been seen, as
anticipated.
He revealed that as of
Friday, last week, only
N165 billion had been deposited
by banks with the
CBN, adding that even
some of the banks with
high customer-base records
had not made any deposit.
Under the policy, the
CBN expects to mop up
about N2.7 trillion held outside
the banking system,
out of the N3.2 trillion in
circulation.
Umar said: “When we
designed this policy, there
was about N2.7 trillion outside
the banking system,
out of the N3.2 trillion in
circulation. As at Friday,
November 18, the total deposit
we have received from
the banks was N165 billion,
which is still small.
“We are not seeing the
rush. Some banks have not
even made any deposits
and some of them are banks
with large customer-base.
In fact, the Director, Banking
Supervision had to
bring it to the notice of the
Inter-Agency Committee,
yesterday.
“It is a problem for us and
we are hoping that it does
not result in a stampede
when we are getting close
to the end of January.”
The director said the
CBN had extended its
work days to Saturday and
that the bank’s branches
were opened to receive
deposits from banks.
He said the apex bank
had also waived charges
and removed all limits in
terms of the amount of money
a customer could deposit
in his account, adding that
there was no reason for anyone
to be afraid to deposit
their monies in their accounts.
‘There'll be no
deadline exten-
office as Vice President,
Atiku said: “When I was
vice-president, I travelled to
Sweden. The Head of government
was a woman,
Prime Minister; the Minister
of Foreign Affairs was a
woman, the Minister of
Finance was a woman, the
Minister of Education was
a woman.
“When I looked at my
delegation, it was all men
and I was embarrassed. I
then committed myself to
making sure that as long as
I remain in politics, I will
promote the advancement
of women.
“Therefore, we had no hesitation
whatsoever in between
1999 and 2015 to
make sure at the very minimal
we complied with the
Beijing Declaration.
He also said he was inspired
by the Rwandan example
where women were
playing key roles in government
and promised women
that they would get at least
35 percent of cabinet positions
in his administration,
if elected.
In his address, National
Chairman of the party, Dr.
Iyorchia Ayu, described
women as the bedrock of
democracy.
He said: “I always wonder
at the capacity of a woman
to not only work hard but
also to be resilient and to do
so many things in one day.
“I think if a man works for
eight hours a day, a woman
works 16 hours a day. The
management skill of a
woman is second to none. I
believe that without a woman,
there can be no nation.
“In this political party we
give special place to women,
recognising them as
partners in progress, realising
that if you have women
on your side, the party will
be a big and gigantic family.
“Apart from saying that
women, who contest should
not pay for form, that is affirmative
action for women,
we also went out of the way
in the first 16 years of this
party when we were in government,
to ensure that
women were reasonably
represented in government.
“I'm happy to reveal to you
that the driving force of that
policy is my brother (Atiku),
who is going to be the next
president of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria.
“When he was the vice
president of this country, I
know exactly what he did in
promoting women. Some of
them he single-handedly
head-hunted because of
their capacity and brought
them into government.”
sion’
He warned that the January
31, 2023, deadline was
sacrosanct and that members
of the public should
make sure they returned
the three denominations
(N200, N500 and N1, 000)
before January 31, 2023, as
all monies held in those
denominations would
cease to be legal tender after
that day.
Network facilities,
1.4 m agents to
assist rural dwellers
In his remarks, the Director
of Corporate Communications,
Mr. Osita Nwanisobi,
assured that centres
would be created for rural,
unbanked members of the
public to change their old
notes.
He added that the Shared
Agent Network Expansion
Facilities, SANEF, had over
1.4 million agents across
Nigeria to address that concern,
''such that even where
people don’t have bank
accounts, they will still be
able to change their money
and we are going to be
doing that within the next
few days.
“The CBN is very mindful
and has said that we will
do whatever needs to be
done to enable people
change whatever money
they have."