VP, Stakeholders seek increasing education funding at all levels

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at a roundtable on Chibok girls and vulnerable people, on Wednesday called for increased funding of education at all levels to empower the people and make them unwilling tools by insurgents.

Vice President Osinbajo specifically emphasised the importance of addressing vulnerability through quality education especially for girls.

He was speaking in Abuja at a one-day Roundtable on Vulnerable People in Insurgency and other conflicts in Nigeria, a forum organised by the Office of the National Security Adviser in conjunction with the Presidency.

“It is important in my view to have a lot more advocacy to reverse the situation where about 10.4 million children are out of schools.”

He urged stakeholders to do more in line with the theme of the Roundtable “Together We Can Do More”.

He stressed that all issues thrown up at the roundtable were critical towards having a holistic approach to addressing the plight of the vulnerable people across the country.

Osinbajo, cautioned against cynicism and hopelessness about the rescue of the 217 Chibok girls abducted by Boko Haram, stressing that their rescue was uppermost in the mind of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He explained that the rescue of the Chibok girls was of utmost importance to the extent that it dominated the security meetings and that President Buhari as a parent was traumatised by the incident.

“At any security council meeting that I have attended, the President in particular has always been concerned about the question of Chibok girls in particular.

"Of course it comes out of ensuring that apart from the international importance attached to it, he reflects on the abduction as if any of the girls is one of his own,” he said.

Osinbajo expressed government’s appreciation to NGOs, CSOs and international partners and sought for their continued collaboration and assistance in further addressing issues around the wellbeing of victims and the rebuilding areas affected by insurgency.

Osinbajo said understanding that fundamental problems of poverty, corruption and lack of education were interconnected was critical to fashioning out long term solutions to the plight of vulnerable people.