Ayodele Olawande, the minister of state for youth development, has advocated for proper decision-making that will improve the girl-child’s life.

Mr Olawande made the call in Abuja on Friday during the Girls Future conference with the theme ” Girls Vision for the Future”.

He announced that as the world celebrates the International Day of the girl-child, the winner of this year’s essay competition would serve as a minister for the day.

“To celebrate the day, I will vacate my seat for the winner of this year’s essay competition to serve as a minister for the day.

“This is to encourage her to sit down and to take decisions that will improve the girl child’s life,” he said.

According to him, the ministry is committed to supporting the development of leadership capacity for the girl-child and creating opportunities for them to participate in the decision-making process.

Mr Olawande advised them to believe more in themselves and to also come together to change the perceptions that people have about girl-child in the country.

“I want to encourage the girl-child to recognise their potential to achieve whatever they set out to achieve, even with the little commitment they have.

“They need more and more proactiveness in everything they do,” Mr Olawande said.

He said that most of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have one thing or the other for young women.

“I think what we need is collaboration with other ministries to achieve our goals.

“Everything that is being done to make things happen, even with the hardship we have now,” he said.

The winner of the essay competition, Esther Adesoye, said during her speech that the fact that girls are not in school is disturbing.

According to her, 7.6 million girls are out of school in the country, 3.9 million at the primary and 3.7 million at the junior secondary level.

“In fact, more than 50 per cent of girls are not attending school at the basic education level.

“In each cohort, one million girls drop out between the first and last year of primary school, and 0.6 million between primary six and JSS one.

“Education is everyone’s right, and it is one of the most crucial aspects of empowerment for women and every single citizen in this country.

“Educated women contribute greatly to society’s development, and they can share the responsibility with men in every walk of life,” Ms Adesoye said.

According to her, girl education today goes beyond just sending girls to school.

“It is also about ensuring the safety of girls while they are in school;
girls must be protected from all forms of violence and abuse.

”Education not only awakens people’s minds, but it also makes them very self-dependent.

“It helps girls think independently so as to enable them to make decisions about their lives on their own.

“It also helps them to be able to differentiate between right and wrong so that they can contribute to societal development,” she said.

She said that the girl-child education would be helpful in preventing various crimes against women.

“Thus, it is important that the girl child’s education is promoted.

“I plan to ensure that girl child education is sustained,” she said.

The first, second and third winners collected 500,000, 300,000 and 200,000, respectively.

(NAN)