British charity IA-Foundation has taken its campaign to Oshodi Market in Lagos, the latest initiative of the group to tackle out-of-school crisis in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos on Sunday after the flag off of the campaign, the Operations Manager of IA-Foundation, Mr Dami Cole, said the group would also take the campaign to other densely populated areas of Lagos and some selected cities in the country.
He said that IA-Foundation decided to kick off its campaign in Lagos because the city is home to the largest number of people in the country.
According to him, the campaign will also highlight the huge problems associated with urban poverty and the inability of millions of homes to send their children to school at school age, due to crushing poverty.
“The purpose of our rally is for us to visit and identify out-of-school kids in the suburbs and make plans to put them in school to enable them to attain the peak of their destinies.
He said that that the kids identified on the streets of Oshodi, including Amusa Street and its adjoining areas were between eight to 10 years of age.
“Our target is to reach unreached areas in Nigeria to restore hope to millions of children,’’ he stated, disclosing that the foundation had slated a fund-raiser on Feb. 26, to raise money to assist hapless kids nationwide.
Cole said that IA-Foundation had also resolved to partner with the Federal Government in helping less privileged kids in the country to have access to education to become better citizens.
He appealed to government and corporate bodies to rise to the challenge of giving education to Nigerians to eradicate social ills, including banditry, terrorism and other avoidable problems plaguing the country.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of IA-Foundation, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, is to embark on a 10-km walk in London later on Sunday, to raise awareness and money to tackle the plight of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The charity walk is to commence from Dartford to Northfleet in Kent, near London.
Records show that up to 10 million kids are out of school in the West African country, hustling on streets, especially in urban areas to find their daily bread to stay alive.
Last August, an analytical company, SB Morgan Intelligence put the number of Nigeria’s out-of-school children at 12,320,529 but the Federal Ministry of Education said that Nigeria did not have up to that number of kids out of school.
Although the ministry could not provide a figure on the number of children that are out of school in the country, records show that Bauchi State in Nigeria’s northeast has the highest number of out of school children, put at 1,239,759.
Katsina State in the northwest has 873,633 kids out of school, while Kano State also in the northwest has 837,479 children out of school.
Edo in Nigeria’s South-South has the lowest number of kids out of school, put at 79,446, nationwide, while Oyo State has 463,280 – the highest in Nigeria’s southwest.
Lagos State, the nation’s economic hub has 229,264 children out of school, while Rivers, Nigeria’s oil capital has 196,851 kids out of school with Ebonyi in the Southeast having 151,000 kids out of school.
There were about 117, 000 primary schools in Nigeria in the 2018/2019 academic year with Lagos State accounting for about 15,000 of the schools, while Oyo and Ogun States followed with over 6,000 schools each.
NAN
