As Kaduna marks the 2019 International Day of the Girl Child, the Permanent Secretary State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Phoebe Sukai Yayi, has said that women in Nigeria are no longer a push over in all spheres of growth and development.
The Permanent Secretary stated this in Kaduna on Tuesday at an event to mark this year’s International Day of the Girl Child with the theme, “GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable.
It was organised by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the United Nation’s Fund for Population Activities UNFPA, Africa Media Development Foundation, AMDF and others.
Mrs Yayi, reminded Nigerians that nobody before birth chose to be either male or female.
She said, though man is declared to be the head of the family, that doesn’t mean that woman should not be relegated to the background.
With an array of female Professors from various fields at the event, the Commissioner noted that most of the jobs hitherto and exclusively occupied by men were now by women hence the need for the girls to decide for themselves what they should become tomorrow.
Mrs. Yayi who counselled the Girl students to protect themselves against sexual abuse, advised them to remain and complete their school, while parents should encourage girls education just as they do to boys.
Also speaking, a University Don, Professor Hauwa, Yusuf of Kaduna State University observed that Nigeria is at a cross road and should therefore not be allowed to degenerate from the present level.
Failure to do so, she said “we will not have a country to call our own”.
Prof. Hauwa described Girl child as an amazon and a hope for the nation who should not be  neglected , and advised the girls not to allow themselves to be made inferior but to have a mindset and positively stubborn to achieve their dreams.
In a good will message, the Coordinator AMDF, Sekyen Dadik reiterated the commitment of the organization through a project being supported by RiseUp to ensuring policy formulation and implementation of free education for girls at public Secondary Schools in Kaduna State
The occasion attracted about four hundred girls selected from public Secondary Schools within and outside the State capital, Kaduna.
