A prominent First Class traditional ruler in Delta State, His Royal Majesty, Asagba Prof Epiphany Azinge, SAN, OON, has pledged support for initiatives that will afford out of school children across the country the opportunity to be educated or acquire skills.
Asagba Prof Azinge, who is the 14th Asagba of Asaba, made the pledge while playing host to the Delta State Coordinator of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children Education (NCAOOSCE), Mrs Nnenna Anabaronye, who paid him a courtesy visit.
The highly esteemed traditional ruler commended the federal government for establishing the Commission, an initiative he noted was originally targeted at emancipating the young out of school children in the North, but which had now been channeled to impact positively on out of school children in the South.
The Professor of Law and foremost Constitutional Lawyer thanked the delegation for the thoughtful visit, saying that the initiative would benefit out of school children in the state and especially in Asaba.
Asagba Prof Azinge said the medium of sensitization was one that could be handled through the community’s traditional governance structure, assuring the NCAOOSCE Coordinator that the needful would be done to sensitize his subjects to key into the programme.
He expressed delight that the Commission also had provision for children whose parents were struggling to train in school, stressing that most parents in southern Nigeria placed high premium in the education of their children and wards and would want to have them in school against all odds.
This, the Asagba explained, implied that out of school children could hardly be found in the South, except those who chose to drop out of school as a matter of choice and not because their parents could not train them.
The king thanked the Commission for choosing Oshimili South Local Government Area as a pilot LGA for the programme and expressed the hope that the set objectives would be achieved and that the initiative would help to correct the notion that education is a scam.
In an interview after the courtesy visit, the NCAOOSCE State Coordinator, Mrs Nnenna Anabaronye, said the almajiri and out of school children were not only in the North, but also in the South, describing the Commission’s education programme as a legacy project of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration.
She disclosed that no fewer than 30 thousand out of school children would benefit from the programme in Delta, pointing out that the visit to the Asagba was to solicit his support in the area of sensitization to ensure the success of the programme in Asaba, the state capital.
Mrs Anabaronye was accompanied to the palace by a representative of the Federal Ministry of Education in Delta State, Mrs Maureen Ezika, amongst others.
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