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."
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