Governor Uba Sani worries of about Six hundred thousand out of School Children in Kaduna.
BY AMINU DALHATU
Governor Uba Sani says Kaduna State has about six hundred thousand out of school children across the state.
He made this known during an interactive session with local government Chairmen and all the Councillors of the state in Kaduna.
Governor Sani said local government Chairmen have significant role to play in addressing the menace of out of school children, saying that, education is one of the most important area that he believed his government need to focus on.
“As we are speaking we have almost Six hundred thousand out of school children here in Kaduna, although we are not even number one, number two or ten in Nigeria”
He described Kaduna as one of the most important state in Northern Nigeria and they must to work closely to reduce the number of out of School Children from six hundred thousand to atleast one hundred thousand in the next one year.
“if we don’t reduce the number of out of School Children we might not be able to address the problem of education in our own state”
Governor Uba Sani express believed that collectively they could do it.
He also revealed that, in the next two weeks, his government would rollout rural development programme with a view to revitalising Rural areas economy.
The Governor also lamented that, Poverty rate in the Rural areas is 86% percent, described the situation as scaring and worrisome.
According to him, the implication was that, only 14% are living above the poverty line while 86% are below the poverty line.
He prayed that from now to twenty thirty, government will make effort to reduce the poverty level in the rural areas from 86% to less than 30%.
Governor Uba Sani told the Chairmen and the Councillors that if they put head together, work for the people of Kaduna State and put political interest aside they can address the problem.
On the issue of health, Malam Sani decried the increasing child mortality in the State.
“In Kaduna we should not be having problem of infant mortality, the rate is high , we are losing babies at the point of giving birth, the rate is really really very high”
“I believed the reason why we invested so much in the primary healthcare is to able to address problem like that, midwives are very important, they are the one that control the process of the delivery “
He stressed that, he is working with his Deputy to increase the number of midwives in the state which he said are are key” if we miss that aspect we cannot address the mortality rate”
On the issue of security, Governor Sani urged Local Government chairmen to ensure that safety and security remain a top priority on their agenda by creating conducive environment for investment and development in the State.
He directed the local government heads to conduct Bi-weekly or alteast monthly security meetings in their respective councils, stressing that, it is significant to partner with religious and traditional leaders to improve intelligence gathering and combat emerging security challenges such as kidnappings,armed robbery and other social vices.
According to him in the next two weeks, the state government would flagged off the already recruited seven thousand KADVIS officials that are currently undergoing training to commence operation by supporting government security agencies to address the challenges of insecurity.
Furthermore, Governor Sani drew the attention of the meeting to the detrimental impact of rural-urban migration on rural development and urged the local government chairmen to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to tackle the issue.
In their response, the local government chairmen pledged their commitment to working closely with the State Government to fulfill its 7-point SUSTAIN agenda, which focuses on rural economic transformation and overall development.
They expressed their appreciation to the Governor for his dedication to rural development and requested his consideration for essential projects within their respective councils.
