Over 15m Children are Out of School, Says Cleric

Mary Nnah

Rev. Father Stephen Ogbe of Dominican College, Abuja, has said Nigeria has over 15 million children, especially girls, that are out of school.

He also said that many Nigerian children that are being released by the military from the Boko Haram den, about 106 of them are girls under the age of nine, saying this is very traumatic.

He said that it was the responsibility of every Nigerian to give a new lease of life to these girls who are picked from various places ranging from the streets to the slums and other places where they are being displaced.

Ogbe, who was a guest at the official lunch of the Lagos State chapter of the International Family Foundation (IFF), a civil society organisation with a global network established to address the moral and socio-economic challenges and associated effects of endemic poverty threatening the stability of families and disadvantaged communities in developing countries, during the weekend, spoke on the theme, “Impact of Abuse and Poverty in the Family: The Girl as a Victim”.

The cleric, who insisted that education for all, particularly for the girl child, is the responsibility for all, appealed to Nigerians to look for a way to give them proper concept of life as well as proper education to enrich them.

He commended IFF for endeavouring to reach out to children, especially the girl child in terms of poverty alleviation, adding that the Dominican College was also trying to reach out to kids but in the area of education.

“The Dominican College, Abuja is for the rich and for the very poor while the rich are able to afford their school fees, we would be able to afford the bills for the poor and that is why we have established the indigene scholarship trust fund so we are appealing to Nigerians to adopt children in our schools that we have picked up from the slums and streets,” he said.

Ogbe said the extent to which they are able to pick the kids off the streets is dependent on how many people are able to adopt our children and take up their responsibilities.

He said the IFF was entering into collaboration with the Dominican College because they realised both organisations had a common goal.