FG partners Bauchi govt to tackle out-of-school children

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The Federal Government through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (OSSAP-SDGs) has partnered Bauchi state Government to address the menace of out-of-school children in the state.
A statement issued yesterday by Janet McDickson, Head, Communications Unit, said the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals Princess Adejoke Orelope- Adefulire and the Bauchi state Governor, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed represented by his Deputy, Senator Baba Tela reached the agreement in her office recently in Abuja.
The statement said the SSAP pointed out that of all the socio-economic problems bedeviling the state presently, education should be the number one problem to tackle, considering the critical role it plays in the development of any society.
The Presidential aide maintained that as a matter of policy, development issues are usually prioritized and that her Office normally gives priority to education being critical not only to the development and well being of the society, but also critically central to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a whole.
Princess Adejoke said “Covid-19 has taught us to put our hands together, so that we can always prepare for eventualities; adding that the Federal, State and Local Governments coming together and taking action for sustainable development will go a long way in changing the life of our people for the better”.
The SSAP pledged to partner and collaborate with Bauchi state government in a way and manner that would make it out-of-school children Free State.
She then called on the State Government to continue exploring ways and means of improving the already existing relation between the two bodies for the benefit of the people and the nation.
Earlier in his submission, the Governor commended the SSAP-SDGs for all the numerous interventions to Bauchi state so far, which he said immensely benefitted the state most especially in areas of healthcare services, water, and education.
He explained that Bauchi state is currently in need of OSSAP-SDGs’ intervention more than ever before, due to the fact that, as a fall-out of the Boko Haram insurgency, most displaced persons from the neighboring Borno and Yobe states had trooped into Bauchi.