A former Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said the abduction of over 200 students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, has dealt a devastating blow to girl-child education in the North-East geo-political zone.
The ex-Vice-President of the World Bank noted that the majority of the parents in the region were now of the view that sending their girl-child to school involved making a decision between “being alive or getting educated.”
The inability of the government to rescue the Chibok girls since their abduction on April 15, she argued, was discouraging parents in the area to send their daughters to school.
According to her, it has become necessary for the Federal Government and the security forces to secure the release of the abducted girls with a view to boosting girl-child education in the North-East.
Ezekwesili spoke in Lagos on Thursday during a programme organised by the United States Consulate to mark the 2014 International Day of the Girl Child.
She said, “The impact of the Chibok girls’ abduction is already being felt. A number of parents whose girls are of school age say they are afraid that what happened to the Chibok girls would happen to their daughters. And so you have come to a stage where parents are unwilling to release their girls to acquire education.
“And this is because since the Chibok girls have been abducted, nothing tangible has been done to rescue them. This gives a very bad signal. And so it is important that we bring back our Chibok girls because it will send the strongest signal to everybody that you don’t have to make a choice between safety and acquiring education.”
She explained that the fact that a child is a female should not be a basis for any discrimination in terms of the opportunities available to them, noting that the girl child, like her male counterparts, should be the best they can possibly be.
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