”Educate the Girl Child. Stop Building Mosques & Stop Early Marriages” – Emir of Kano Appeals
The Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammad Sanusi II, has expressed his frustration at the low level of girl child education in the North during a conference on Islamic finance organized by the International Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (IIIBF) at Bayero University, Kano yesterday, January 19th.
He said he is tired of receiving letters from some Northerners requesting for financial help to build mosque instead of educating the girl-child in the villages and discourage early marriage, Punch gathers.
”I’m just tired of people coming to me to say I want to build a new mosque. You know, we keep building mosques and our daughters are illiterates.
So, my appeal is that if you really want to help Kano, don’t come to me with a request to build a N300m mosque because I have enough mosques everywhere. And if I don’t have a mosque, I’ll build it myself. If you really want to help, go and educate a girl child in the village.”
Over 50 percent of girls between the age bracket of 18 and 20 were given out in marriage in this part of the country, according to him. He added that the worrisome dimension of it was that 75% of them could neither read nor write.
In conclusion, he called for a review of laws to prevent early marriage and encourage girl child education, he added:
”It is not a mere coincidence that this is where you have the highest levels of illiteracy, early marriage, divorce and the highest levels of domestic violence…
People need to understand that the law has to change. If you look at the medical data on maternal health, girls who get pregnant below the age of 15 are five times as likely to die as girls who get pregnant at the age of 20. Those who get pregnant under 18 are twice as likely to die as those who get pregnant at the age of 20. So, it is important that we look at this issue of early marriage.”
This is not the first time the one time governor of Central Bank will be advocating for the girl-child and women.
I wish they would listen
Gbam! Nice one….
There’s no way they can listen to you, it’s in their blood stream
Very well said. Question is will they listen? Most of the girls won’t even want to go because all they think about is how to get married.
i love this lets hope it works