The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II has advised wealthy Muslims and other donor agencies
He made the call while delivering a Keynote address at the
opening ceremony of the Third International Conference on Islamic Banking
and Finance held in Kano on Thursday.
According to him, educating the girl-child would go a long
way in producing educated mothers in the region.
“It is important to reduce the rate of maternal death and it
is only through educating the girl-child the ugly trend can be reversed.”
He said as part of effort to address the issue, the emirate
council had set up three committees with a view to finding a lasting solution
to the problem.
He said one of the committees had been saddled with the
responsibility of coming up with education matters while the others are
responsible for family and foundation issues.
“The three committees are interrelated as they will address
a number of issues bordering on early marriage, education of the girl-child as
well as other related matters.”
“If you want to help the poor, establish schools for them,
or provide health institutions or empowerment in terms of providing job
opportunities. But don’t come to me to say you want to build Mosque because we
have them everywhere.”
“So, my appeal is that if you really want to help Kano,
don’t come to me with a request to build a N300m mosque because I have enough
mosques everywhere. And if I don’t have a mosque, I’ll build it myself. If you
really want to help, go and educate a girl child in the village.”
He said very soon it would be an offence for parents to
remove their girl-child from school or marry them off before the age of 18.
“Nobody has ever been arrested for taking his daughter out
of school. Kano has not lost its identity but we will soon lose it if we are
not educated,” he added.
Sanusi also called for a review of laws to prevent early
marriage and encourage girl child education.
“It is not a mere coincidence that this is where you have
the highest levels of illiteracy, early marriage, divorce and the highest
levels of domestic violence…
People need to understand that the law has to change. If you
look at the medical data on maternal health, girls who get pregnant below the
age of 15 are five times as likely to die as girls who get pregnant at the age
of 20. Those who get pregnant under 18 are twice as likely to die as those who
get pregnant at the age of 20. So, it is important that we look at this issue
of early marriage,” the monarch said.
Also, the Kano State Deputy Governor, Prof. Hafiz
Abubakar said the state government attached great importance to girl-child
education hence its decision to introduce summer camp for primary
school pupils and Junior secondary school female students.
He said since the introduction of the programme, no fewer
than 10,863 students benefited from the programme in the state.
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