By Samuel Oyejola
A Memorandum of Understanding that would ensure that northern children have access to education like any other child in the develop world have been signed by the Northern Governors’ Forum, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria and the profuturo Foundation.
The project which would kick off in September 2017 is to cover catholic schools and selected public primary schools in all states in the northern Nigerian for the first phase. The project involved the use of tablets with instructional materials for children.
At the event, the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum and the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima said that the MOU would rekindle the hope for a better tomorrow for millions of children in the northern Nigeria and also foster intercommunual and interfaith dialogue in that part of the country.
He commended the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria and Community of San’t Egidio for making the project possible stressing that the Catholic Church has been a front bencher in education advancement in the country.
While explaining that the problems in the north are hinged on low literacy and high poverty levels, he said the needed panacea is to ensure that the educational institutions in the north are functional, qualitative and accessible.
It should be the primary schools in the southern part of Nigeria consisting of the south-west, south-south and the south-east has less than 20,000 public primary schools while the north-east alone has closed to 20,000 public primary schools.
“The whole thing is an irony, the schools are there but not functional and where they are functional there is low enrolment. We must continually devise means of tacking this problem through creative means”, he said.
While harping on the fact that education is very important to the growth of the northern Nigeria, he appreciated the commitment of the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Dioceses, Bishop Mathew Kukah and the Emir of Kano as the promoters of the project.
The chairman of profuturo, Ceaser Alieta… speaking to Time Nigeria said he was impressed with the commitment of the Nigeria Northern Governors Forum and he is ready to partner with them to ensure that children in the north are well educated.
“we are very motivated, we are going to work together and we are going to ensure that children in the northern Nigeria have a very good education, the governors are very cooperative so is the Kukah Center, the Catholic Church and we are fully committed to that.
Speaking at the event, Professor Van de Volder, of the Community of San’t Egidio the initiator of the programme said, the project is one of the mission of the community which is to ensure that peaceful coexistence is achieve all over the world.
“Dialogue is not only about friendly talk, nice meetings, nice declarations but it needs to materialize to become complete interfaith collaboration working together for peace and that is what we are doing.
“We cannot beat boko haram with arms it can only be defeated when the children of the northern Nigeria will have access to education.”
The project is expected to be coordinated by Kukah Center and Community of San’t Egidio Nigeria.