ACF hails Gov Yusuf’s declaration of State of Emergency on Education
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Nigerian social-cultural organisation, has described the recent declaration of State of Emergency on Education in Kano State as unique transformation agenda that will restore lost glory in the region.
Chairman, ACF Board of Trustees, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Dalhatu (SAN), gave the accolade during the Kano State Education Recovery Conference tagged at repositioning and navigating the ailing sector towards path of excellence.
Alhaji Dalhatu explained that Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf’s bold step to rejuvenate decades of total neglect of public schools, through the state of emergency, should be emulated by all Northern states’ governments to reshape the fortune of future generation in the region.
The Minister of Transport and Aviation during the Shonekan Administration and Minister of of Power and Steel during the Abacha military regime, who had expressed worries over the near collapse of infrastructure and learning poverty in public schools in Northern Nigeria, attributed the failure to successive administrations.
While expressing satisfaction on the renewed strategy of Governor Yusuf to make education accessible to all school age children in Kano, the ACF leader appealed for special attention to out-of-school children.
The menace of out-of-school children would continue to grow in Northern Nigeria until those entrusted with governance and responsibility refrain from playing the ostrich game, Bashir Dalhatu held.
He regretted that over one million children continued to roam around on daily basis in the North without basic education, because “those that cannot afford to take care of the situation are the highest producers of children.”
He applauded Governor Abba Yusuf for taking the bold step to declare a state of emergency in the education system and urged other Northern governors to nurture similar framework to rescue the ailing sector.
In his remarks, the Kano Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, revealed that he inherited a near collapse of education system with dilapidated classroom blocks, a worrisome trend living thousands of pupils sitting on bare floor and under the trees to receive lessons.
Governor Yusuf emphasised that intention of the national education recovery conference was invoked to reposition and navigate path to education excellence, the move that necessitated declaration of state of emergency in the sector.
While building new reforms to reposition the foundation and build quality public education for all, Governor Yusuf said his administration has voted about 30 percent budgetary allocation on education in the 2024 fiscal year.
Besides, the Governor said his administration has equally invested over N4 billion on rehabilitation and construction of new classrooms, while appealing for collaboration of development partners and Federal Government to restore hope in the sector.
