By Gabriel Atumeyi
About N20 billion has been expended on construction and rehabilitation of classrooms in Sokoto State by the state government and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has disclosed.
The governor said this while speaking on Tuesday at the launch of the HeForShe programme under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and a coalition of international donors as well as international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) at the Government House, Sokoto.
According to him, his administration “prioritised the education of women through various strategies, one of which is the establishment of special girl schools across the state, especially for science and technology, while women entrepreneurship is being promoted through financial support and loans for small scale businesses at local government and state levels.”
The governor further said “the inclusion of women in governance is ensured by our appointment of women into sensitive civil service and political positions of authority, to enable them bring their capabilities to bear in affairs of the state.”
He also assured that his government will give attention to issues of advocacy earlier raised by the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen, which include the uplifting of the standard of the state’s Women Development Centre, provision of a window for the Ministry of Women Affairs in the state to get patronage from the internally generated revenue, as well as creation of a women and children department at the local government level.
Others are furnishing of model women development centres, refurbishing of a centre at Wamakko and rehabilitation of the Maryam Abacha Vesico-Vaginal Fistula hospital in Sokoto.
Tallen, in her remarks, also expressed satisfaction with many achievements of Gov. Tambuwal’s administration and drew attention to the need to domesticate laws that would check violence against women and children as “the rate of physical, psychological and emotional violence against women , girls and boys in the recent times is another major concern.”
She explained that “the HeForShe project is to crystallise a strategic shift by global development actors to put on increased focus on actions that brings men and boys side by side with women and girls, in order to break through the barriers preventing women and girls from achieving their full potentials and contributing to the development of our global community.”