….Lays Emphasis on Repositioning Women Empowerment, Educationally and Economically.
……as AGILE donor partner assures of their sustainable collaborations
The Gombe State Government has reiterated its commitment to empowering women in the state to make them educationally and economically viable for all opportunities that may present themselves for their sustainable development.
This was contained in a statement signed by Jack A. Tasha Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity(Deputy Governor’s Office) Made available to newsmen.
It said this assertion was made by the State Deputy Governor, Manassah Daniel Jatau, Ph.D., when he received on a courtesy visit the World Bank’s Task Team Leader (TTL) of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), Shinsaku Nomura, and the Co-TTL, Maliq, alongside officials of the Gombe State AGILE Coordinating Office, under the leadership of the State Project Coordinator, Dr. Amina Haruna Abdul.
Dr. Jatau explained that the incumbent administration has taken the AGILE programme with utmost seriousness for demographic reasons and due to the fact that only a few countries around the world reflect demographic realities where the population of women often outnumbers that of men. As a result, the workload of the family becomes greater on women.
He said the Government of Gombe State keyed into the AGILE programme without hesitation as a deliberate effort to empower the girl-child educationally and skillfully for them to be self-reliant.
Manassah Jatau said, as a sociologist, “I am confident to say that women have proven to be more caring, kind, and reliable, which has become necessary and one of the qualities that makes it a responsibility of the government to invest in their development for a better society,” he added.
The Deputy Governor noted that some men abandon their homes and neglect their responsibilities, leaving women to cater for their households due to the troubled state of the economy. He added that, in some cases, mortality rates among men are higher than those of women, which further contributes to the growing number of female-headed households requiring support, thereby placing additional pressure on the government to intervene through targeted social and economic programmes that support women and vulnerable families.
According to him, the administration has also demonstrated commitment to the development of education in the state through initiating school projects such as the construction of mega schools within the three senatorial districts: one in Kaltungo for Gombe South, another in Dadinkowa to represent Gombe Central, and another in Dukku for Gombe North, adding that the state has five mega schools in total.
He, however, stated that out of the five mega schools, only one is allocated to female students, assuring that another six schools are billed for renovation, which will be designated for female students, all in an effort to enhance the standard of education for women in particular.
He stressed that the importance of monitoring and evaluation of projects in any society is to ensure effectiveness and therefore called on the AGILE TTL to identify critical areas that need government attention for necessary action.
He said that, as a critic, he would have preferred the evaluating TTL to have assessed the project before coming to his office so that the meeting would concentrate on the shortcomings and gaps identified for possible solutions.
In his remarks, the Task Team Leader, Shinsaku Nomura, who is in Gombe for the first time, said the TTL visit followed an evaluation meeting of the AGILE projects in Abuja, which noted that the project in some states did not attain the target, a development that necessitated the evaluation visit to the states.
He explained that the project has only twenty-seven more months to wind up and that it has not achieved its target, noting that the visit will determine how to improve and make it more impactful for the society.
Mr. Shinsaku further said that, going by Gombe State’s efforts in education, the AGILE project will be successful and called for continuous partnership for robust project implementation in the state.
Earlier, the Gombe State Project Coordinator of AGILE, Dr. Amina Haruna Abdul, commended the State Governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, for his continuous support for the implementation of the project in the state and appreciated the opportunity for the visit.
Present at the meeting were the immediate past Honourable Commissioner for Education, Professor Aishatu Maigari; the Permanent Secretary, Bureau for Public Statistics and Reforms, Alhaji Abubakar Hassan; and his counterpart in the Deputy Governor’s Office, Mrs. Larai Maigari. Others included the Special Adviser to the Governor on Development Partners Coordination Office, Dr. Ishiyaku Babayo, as well as the Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Deputy Governor’s Office, Alhaji Abubakar Lawan, among others.
