As usual, today, being 8th of March, marks another round of the International Women Day. Our folk are syncytially celebrating some successful women like Ngozi Okonja Iweala, Amina J. Muhammad, Hadiza Bala Usman, Layla Ali Othman, Maryam Shetty, and their likes. But to me, it meant different. For It happened to be an opportunity, to take a deep sigh and looks of what take those successful women to where they’re and share the untold story of my unschooled sisters in Yobe State in order to understand the deficit or correlation between the duo. Wherever you see a woman succeed, please ask her, what make her so? She will definitely unhesitatingly inform you that it’s a ‘Qualitative Education’.

It’s well known that, after the assumption of office, Yobe state Governor, His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, declared the state of emergency in Education. From all indication, the Governor had insights on how dilapidated the sector was. On that day, I jovially celebrates that this administration would be committed to the educational sector, so that my growing brothers and sisters could enjoy the sweetness of being in school. But sadly, my dream is on way to be proved wrong.
The educational officials pledged that they will put total attention to the Sector and paradoxically claiming a better Education as their watchword. But unfortunately, the sector(Education) is today swinging between the diameter of ‘little or no development at all’.

Development in Yobe educational sector can never be achieve when one gender is biased during distribution of knowledge. Despite the huge and stampeding population of females children within the state, they are given no priority toward acquiring there constitutional ”Right to Education” And one can vividly attest this by taken a deep sight to the number of female’s only schools compare to that of their counterpart gender. Here in Potiskum local government, I knows only a single state owned school that happened to be a boarding school which belongs to girls only, located in Potiskum, while Boys had about five state owned senior secondary schools.

One of the contributory factor in declining girls from being enrolled in school is the stereotype notion in the mind of our community,especially our older parents, that harbor Western Education. They are completely not in harmony with sending their Girl-children to boarding schools with belief that if they were sent, are likely to be spoiled in the school.

It has been a long time menace in Yobe state that, if your family are not well-to-do, your growing sisters may not be able to acquire the basic education (SSCE), because if you like them to do, you will be left with no option than to enroll them in private schools that has no instrumental equipment to deliver them a Qualitative education.

I experience that, in lower class community like ours each six girls in every ten are married-off teenage (between the ages of 15-17) due to the inability of their parent to meet-up and pay there school fees. Alas, that is the only choice they had in hand.
Those that their parents can’t make it to afford the house furniture if said to be married-off, would ended-up hawking of table water, kola nut and groundnut. This increase their vulnerability to prostitution and other social immorality.

Today the number of teenage sex-workers is deescalating rapidly. While the reckless government is showing no concern to the offing of our Girl-childs, that would be mothers in the coming days. The threat of early prostitution has no simple and absolute solution than the provision of ‘Basic Education for All’

If we continued on this way, do you think these our sisters of would grow-up and compete with mates over the world? Or they’ll take-off magically and substitutes these prolific women? Definitely, the answer must be no. therefore, Women are our sister in creation, so, we must raised their hands toward achieving the lively goals.

On this, I’ll like to call on our Governor to use the Educational appeal fund generated towards uplifting and given enabling environment that could reduce the number of out of school girls roaming the street.

Happy International Women Day 2022

Ali Tijjani Hassan writes from Potiskum Yobe State