BY ROTIMI DUROJAIYE
First Lady of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari, has urged well-meaning Nigerians to lend a hand of support to educating the Nigerian populace.
Her Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Aliyu Abdullahi, said she made the call on Thursday, at the graduation ceremony of her Future Assured Youth Education Empowerment Programme batch two in Yola, Adamawa State.
Mrs. Buhari, who was represented at the ceremony by her daughter, Mrs. Halima Buhari-Sheriff, said that it is common knowledge in all parts of the world that people without education find it difficult to manage their lives.
They experience poor health conditions, lack of employment opportunities, and the inability to have a voice to articulate and channel their opinions.
She also stated that one of the long-term casualties of war and other crises around the world is education.
“Undoubtedly, education has suffered a lot in this part of the country despite the fact that it is one of the most powerful tools for national development, which empowers humanity with knowledge and other opportunities.
” Therefore, I have always queried myself if there was anything I can do to ameliorate the ever declining access to education especially in the North East that was ravaged by the activities of insurgency over the years,” she said.
She described how in 2017, she partnered with Konngol Silvertongue Institute in Adamawa State to experiment with some ideas on how to improve access to education, particularly among the young school dropouts.
She said that experiment brought back those who initially lost hope because they failed in their WAEC, NECO and had no idea where to start again.
“The FA-YEEP then commenced with 135 students and at the end of the training recorded 40% success rate. Banking on our experience, we commenced the second batch with about 650 students and recorded a 95% success rate today” said Mrs. Buhari.
She also thanked the traditional leaders in the state for their support, the Lamido of Adamawa, Emir of Mubi, and the Gangwari of Ganye, where the three learning centers were located.
She further expressed gratitude to the development partners, Petroleum Equalisation Fund, North East Development Commission for providing the learners with customized E-learning tools.
Abubakar Tahir of Kongol Silvertongue Institute expressed gratitude over the productive partnership, which resulted in a huge success rate.
“More than a dozen students made several distinctions in their WAEC and have gained admissions into various tertiary institutions around the country, said Tahir.
Highlights of the event were testimonials shared by the successful beneficiaries and they were presented with gifts.
one of them, Miss Patience Johnsimandi, made 9 distinctions from all the subjects she sat for.
The Adamawa State Governor represented by the Commissioner of Education, Wilbiner Jackson and the wife of the governor, Lami Ahmadu Fintiri, represented by the Commissioner of Women Affairs, gave goodwill messages and thanked the First Lady for her acts of kindness to the people of Adamawa State.
Halima Buhari-Sheriff was accompanied to the event by some presidential aides, Mohammed Usman Albishir, Aliyu Abdullahi, and Fadima Rose Audu, among others.
