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International Day Of The Girl-child: Bauchi Govt Urged To Promote Digital Learning

Published

4 years ago

October 5, 2021

Our Reporter, Bauchi

Some female children in Bauchi State, have urged the state government to provide an enabling environment to promote digital learning, to enable the girls realise their full potentials.

Aishatu Abdullahi, President of the Girl-Child in the state, made the call at an event organised to mark the 2021 International Day of the Girl Child.

It could be recalled that on Dec. 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child.

The Day is aimed at encouraging girls to know their digital realities and the solutions they need to pave way to freedom of expression, joy and boundless potential.

The event was organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), as part of activities to celebrate the Day in the state.

Abdullahi, a student of the Government Day Secondary School, Sa’adu Zungur, Bauchi, said the call was imperative towards reducing the number of Out-of-School children in the state.

She also urged the state government to initiate a policy that would facilitate establishment of post basic school attached to every primary school across the state.

This, she said, would ensure continuity of learning and reduce the dropout rate in the state.

“The girls ask the state government to help in providing an enabling environment for teaching and learning with focus on digital and technical innovations.

“The girls also ask for recruitment of more female teachers in schools to encourage the retention of girls in schools.

“To also help in creating specific policy that will ensure availability of a junior secondary school attached to every primary school, to enhance continuation of learning and reduce the dropout rate of girls in schools,” Abdullahi said.

In her remarks, Hajiya Halima Umar, UNICEF Focal Person in SUBEB, said that Oct. 11 had been set aside by the UN, to promote the rights of girls and address challenges facing the girl-child.

Umar said that the day would enable diverse groups with the same goal to deliberate and act towards the promotion and advancement of the rights of the girls.

“This day also highlights gender inequalities that remain between boys and girls as well as highlights the various sorts of discriminations and abuse suffered by girls around the world,” she said.

According to her, the gender gap for internet users has grown from 11 per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2019, adding that in a developing country like Nigeria, the percentage hoveres around 43 per cent.

On his part, Mr Tushar Rane, UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Bauchi, said that sequel to that closure of schools occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the UN agency in collaboration with the state government developed a strategy to ensure that students continue to learn while at home.

Rane, represented by Mr Raphael Aiyedipe, Bauchi UNICEF Education Specialist, said that the organisation realised that teaching and learning could be taken out of the four corners of classroom.

“This means teaching and learning can go on even while the children are at home and that is why the theme of this year is, “Digital Generation not without Girls”.

“We know that the world is becoming a global village and while at home you can learn and that has taught us a very good lesson.

“But there is the need for us to build the capacity of all the children to be digitally inclined,” he said.

Hajiya Aisha Mohammed, the Wife of the State Governor, said that the girls were truly of the digital age, adding that they should be prepared to present themselves anywhere as girls of the digital generation.

She charged them to take up the challenge of the digital age.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on you to be ready to exude your readiness to learn, use technology and become women in technology in a few years to come.

“Make Bauchi state proud by becoming software, hardware and competent engineers that will help to solve development and social challenges facing our state and country at large,” Mohammed said

The governor’s wife also urged parents to take the advantage of digital entrepreneurship as a means of retaining girl-child in schools and help them to attain their potential.

She also urged government at all levels to provide necessary support to assist the girl-child to become educationally empowered.

She, however, said that the Gov. Bala Mohammed’s administration had invested extensively in the education sector and would continue to do so to help the children to attain their potential.

Headline

UK Police Arrest Asylum Seeker Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed

Published

7 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The UK police on Sunday arrested an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender, whose crimes had sparked anti-immigration protests, after he was accidentally released from prison in an embarrassing blunder by British authorities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested Hadush Kebatu in the north of the capital on Sunday morning, nearly 48 hours after he was mistakenly freed around 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.

Kebatu, 38, had served the first month of a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, but was reportedly due to be deported when the Prison Service error occurred on Friday.

His high-profile case earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, sparked demonstrations in various English towns and cities where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.

Commander James Conway, who oversaw the manhunt for him, said “information from the public” led officers to the Finsbury Park neighbourhood of London, where he was found.

“He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” he added.

Kebatu is now expected to be deported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday he was “appalled” by the “totally unacceptable” mistake that saw him freed rather than sent to an immigration detention centre.

The Telegraph newspaper said he was wrongly categorised for release on licence and handed a £76 ($101) discharge grant.

Police had appealed Saturday for Kebatu to turn himself in, after reports emerged that he had appeared confused and reluctant to leave the prison in Chelmsford, eastern England.

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver told Sky News he saw Kebatu outside the jail, asking, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

“He was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed,” the driver said.

The father of Kebatu’s anonymous teenage victim told the broadcaster that “the justice system has let us down.”

Police arrested the asylum seeker in July after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.

He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.

He was staying at the time at Epping’s Bell Hotel, where scores of other asylum seekers have been accommodated, and which became the target of repeated protests.

AFP

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Madagascar Revokes Ousted President’s Nationality

Published

8 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Madagascar’s new government has stripped ousted president Andry Rajoelina of his Malagasy nationality in a decree published Friday, 10 days after he was removed in a military takeover.

According to AFP, the decree means that Rajoelina, who was impeached on October 14 after fleeing the island nation in the wake of weeks of protests, would not be able to contest future election.

The decree published in the official gazette said Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality was revoked because he had acquired French nationality in 2014, local media reported, as photographs of the document were shared online.

French broadcaster RFI said it had confirmed the decree with the entourage of the new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, who signed the order.

The decree cited laws stipulating that a Malagasy who voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality.

Rajoelina’s French nationality caused a scandal when it was revealed ahead of the November 2023 elections, nearly 10 years after it was granted.

It triggered calls for him to be disqualified but he went on to win the contested polls, which were boycotted by opposition parties.

The 51-year-old politician fled Madagascar after army Colonel Michael Randrianirina said on October 11 his CAPSAT unit would refuse orders to put down the youth-led protest movement, which security forces had attempted to suppress with violence.

Rajoelina said later he was in hiding for his safety, but did not say where.

Randrianirina was sworn in as president on October 14, pledging elections within two years.

Headline

Kamala Harris Hints At Running For President Again

Published

8 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Former US vice president Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed in Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.

Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.

But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.

“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.

“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.

The interview follows the release of her memoir last month, in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.

She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.

AFP