Yahaya seeks UN agencies’ support to accelerate quality education in Gombe
Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State has solicited for the support of UN agencies to accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on quality education in his state.
SDGs four is on achieving quality education, which enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty.
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Yahaya, who is on the Nigerian delegation at the ongoing 78th session of UN General Assembly in New York, made the call while speaking with journalists after the SDGs’ summit.
The UN General Assembly on Monday adopted a political declaration to accelerate action to achieve SDGs, which are woefully off-track toward their 2030 deadline.
The political declaration includes a commitment to financing for developing countries and clear support for its proposal for an SDG Stimulus of at least 500 billion US dollars annually, as well as an effective debt-relief mechanism.
It also calls for changing the business model of multilateral development banks to offer private finance at more affordable rates for developing countries.
It also endorses reform of the international finance architecture which it has labelled “outdated, dysfunctional and unfair”.
Yahaya said he had already met with some UN agencies such as United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), seeking support to address out of school children.
According to him, the support will help to seek support to tackle the issue of out of school children, which he said had hit 600,000 in Gombe.
The governor said he had also met with United Nations Population Fund, and other UN agencies on the margins of UNGA in order to seek the support required that would help his administration uplift the lives and livelihoods of his people.
UNICEF had in 2022 released data stating that Nigeria had the highest rate of out-of-school children with at least 10.5 million children, the highest rate in the world.
Yahaya said he was part of the delegation to support the effort of the Federal Government, saying, ” as a subnational, whatever affects the nation, Nigeria affects us.
“In fact, it is a combination of the states that makes the federation. So we’ll be meeting and engaging other world leaders to support Mr President in order to deliver on the needs of Nigerian people, but specifically for Gombe.
“I have been able to meet with UNICEF, UNFPA, and other agencies of the United Nations in order to make sure that we get the support required so that we can uplift the lives and livelihoods of our people.
“Specifically with UNFPA, we are seeking support on the democratic development in various strata, agencies like UNICEF, we are seeking support especially for the girl-child education.
“Especially in the Northeast subregion where there’s a lot of challenges with regard to insurgency.
“And the consequential effect of displacement of the people and the background of the people not really engaging in terms of Western education.
“So, we’re collaborating so that those two issues at least will be resolved once and for all in the near future”.
Yahaya also spoke on efforts to bring down the number of out of school children, which according to him has been very difficult because of the surge in number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from neighboring states.
“By 2019, according to the UNICEF account, there were 550,000 out of school children in Gombe alone and as of today, the numbers have risen either because of the settlement or rehabilitation of some people from the displaced states.
“You know, we share a boundary with the remaining five states of the Northeast.
“Therefore, most of them have relocated due to Gombe’s security and safety, adding to our own issues, and we must choose where and how.
“There ought to be around 600,000 by now, in my estimation. But in the past three or four years, we have been able to accept 350,000.
“Our goal is to ensure that each child in Gombe receives free quality education.
“At the very least, up to the basic education, in accordance with the principles of universal free education as guided by the Sustainable Development Goals.”
