PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, while receiving in audience the Pakistani Girl-Child Education campaigner and survivor of Taliban assassination attempt, Malala Yousafzai, dispelled the notion that the Federal Government was slack in its efforts to rescue the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.
The president at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Monday told the visitor that the government was doing all it could to rescue the girls, but was greatly constrained by the need to ensure that they were rescued alive.
'Terror is relatively new here and dealing with it has its challenges. The great challenge in rescuing the Chibok girls is the need to ensure that they are rescued alive,' he said.
According to him, the Federal Government and its security agencies were very mindful of . . .
the need to avoid the scenario in rescue attempts in other parts of the world, where lives of abductees were lost in the effort to rescue them.He further explained, 'The time it is taking to achieve that objective is not a question of the competence of the Nigerian government. We have had teams from the United States, Britain, France, Israel and other friendly nations working with us here on the rescue effort and they all appreciate the challenges and the need to tread carefully to achieve our purpose.'
President Jonathan told the visiting Pakistini prodigy that he would meet with the parents of Chibok girls himself before they left Abuja to personally comfort them and reassure them that the Federal Government was doing all within its powers to rescue their daughters.
He further assured the Malala that the government would ensure proper care is taken of the girls when they are freed
He said that the government had readied scholarship awards, which they would be free to use the scholarship in any part of the country they deemed fit, when they are released..
The president said that his administration was committed to ensuring the safe and proper education of all Nigerian children.
He thanked Malala for coming to Nigeria to support ongoing efforts to rescue the abducted girls and promote girl-child education.
'We appreciate your efforts to change the world positively through your powerful advocacy for girl-child education,' he added.
Malala, in company with father and other members of her foundation urged the President to meet with the families of both the girls that had escaped and those still in Boko Haram captivity.
Malala survived Taliban gun attack in October 2012 while carrying on with her activism for rights to education for women, especially in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
The child campaigner who used the opportunity of her 17th birthday celebration to come to Nigeria to press for action to release the girls, had earlier met with parents of some of the girls and conveyed their concerns to the president.
Giving an insight into the meeting with the president in a chat with State House correspondents, she announced that her foundation had raised $200,000 towards the education of the abducted girls.
'I convey the voice of my sisters who are out of school or who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram and for those girls who escaped from the abduction but still do not have education.
'And in the meeting, I highlighted the same issues which the girls and their parents told me in the past two days.
'The parents said they really want to meet with the president to share their stories with him and I asked the president if he wants to meet with the parents of the girls. The president assured me that he would meet with them.
'I spoke to the president about the girls who complain that they cannot go to school despite the fact that they want to become doctors, engineers and teachers, but the government is not providing them any facility.
'They also need health facility and security. These are the issues I presented to the president today.
'And the president fortunately promised me that he will do something for these girls and he promised me that the girls under the abduction of Boko haram will be released as soon as possible,' she said.
Malala revealed that the parents had craved for an opportunity to meet the president and were in desperate need for help.
'Yesterday (Sunday), I also met with the parents of these girls who are still under the abduction of Boko Haram and they were crying and hopeless. But still, they have this hope that there are still some people who can help them.
'I am hopeful that these two promises, the return of the girls from Boko Haram and meeting with their parents will be fulfilled and we will see it soon,' she added.
Malala promised that she would sustain the campaign for the rescue and education of the abducted girls.
'Even though the promises have been made, it does not mean I am going to stop talking. I will be counting days and I will be looking when those girls are going to be returned home.
'I can't stop this campaign until I see those girls return back to their families and continue the agitation,' she said.
Malala noted the difficulty faced by government in the rescue effort, but added that the responsibility ultimately rested with President Jonathan.
Later on a visit to the minister of state for education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, the young Pakistani girl education rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, urged the Nigerian government to expedite action in the effort towards the reduction of the number of out-of-school children in the country, currently estimated at 10.5 million.
She also decried the continued incarceration of over 200 Chibok schoolgirls of Government Secondary School, Chibok by their abductors.
She urged the the government do everything within its power to free them from the abductors and make education safe and pleasurable for children.
She urged leaders at the three tiers of governance to desist from the blame game over whose responsibility it is to provide basic education, noting that they ought to work in synergy to boost basic education delivery.
Coincidentally, the United Nations (UN) has set aside July 14 as a day for Malala.
Malala, who clocked 17 on Saturday, is on a three-day visit to Nigeria, in furtherance of her campaign for the release of the Chibok girls, as well as education for girl-child in Nigeria.
'Hopefully, by the time I come back to this country, I hope there would be zero number of out-of-school children in Nigeria. No child should be deprived of getting education and I am hopeful that the girls that escaped from the abduction would be able to go to school and get full protection. I have a lot of expectations from the government,' she said.
In his remarks, Wike said government was targeting enrollment of additional three million children by September 2015, when the next academic year would be rounding up.
He noted that there had been concerted efforts by the government to reduce the out-of-school children in Nigeria, which accounted for the injection of over N139 billion between 2011 and 2014 into the sector by the current administration.
Wike also explained to the visiting delegation that Nigeria runs a federal system of government which constitutionally places the responsibility of basic education delivery at the shoulders of states and local government councils.
The minister, however, said he doubted the 10.5 million out of school children's figure estimated by the United Nations and speculated by the international community.
'I doubt the number of 10.5 million out-of-school children because there is no basis, but we are assuming, let us believe it is 10.5 million. Basically, we are doubting the statistics of United Nations, but we don't want to debate on it too much so let us work on the figure,' he said.
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