Today is the International Day of the Girl Child

Yesterday I wrote to the girl child… https://rb.gy/cdvn7u

Today I write on her behalf to the nation.

I started pleading the cause of the Nigerian child since 1997 and I think I can say I have come of age in my advocacy.

My position today is that we live in a nation that is neither aware of her children nor care about them and their existence.

The majority of our precious girl children are abandoned orphans as the community and the Nigerian state have shamefully outsourced their welfare and protection to international donor agencies.

The girl child is the worst hit, particularly at relates to education.

There are 13.5 million children out of school in Nigeria today and 60% of them are girls according to Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC.

Our precious girls are not in school for sundry reasons, chief of which is abject poverty. Over 82 million Nigerian primary and secondary parents live on less than $1.9 per day.

The ruling elites know the importance of education and give the best of it to their children, boys and girls for them to get ahead in life.

It is disheartening that the same education they give to their children in abundance, they deny the children of people they rule in abundance. They leave the few who can educate their children to suffocate under prohibitive school fees, those who cannot are left in the hell of abandonment while some leave the country in search of education for their children.

The political elites deliberately defunded education. Ignorance is a veritable weapon to keep the people down and oppressed.

Only 6.7% of the 2020 budget was allocated to education and since 1999, it has been it has been between 4% to 10%.

How do we speak of a VOICE, EQUALITY AND FUTURE for the precious but forgotten Nigerian girl child?

I think it is almost unpardonably hypocritical for Nigerians and her government to keep dropping slogans around, claiming to be celebrating the International Day of the girl child without a commitment to address the core issues blighting her and robbing her of her glorious present and her more glorious future.

God is waiting on us to act! But for how long shall we keep Him waiting before we rise with righteous indignation to defend the girl child, giving her a VOICE, EQUALITY and FUTURE?

I am Taiwo AKINLAMI and I am Sober on my knees today for the Nigerian Girl Child.