By Chuks Ehirim
The rising wave of general insecurity in our land today would have been kept at bay if the political elite had accorded education its pride of place in the country’s development agenda. Reigning Miss NAIADES Africa 2011, Her Majesty, Queen Jennifer Uju Igwegbe, stressed this in Abuja over the week-end on the occasion of a charity visit to some of the primary schools in Abuja under her pro-less privileged pet project.She went specifically Gosa and Kuje primary schools.
Addressing a large crowd of pupils and their teachers at Gosa, the 23 year old Abuja-based queen who also held the Miss Aso Beauty Pagent Crown for 2010, said education is the key to success and that no nation anywhere in the world can develop beyond their level of education. “I think I am what I am today because I am educated and I am still being educated. Due to my empathy for the less privileged and I love to touch their lives positively, I have decided to dedicate my crowns to the less privileged. There is this burning passion in me to use my position as the reigning Queen to touch the lives of this class of people. I desire to be an advocate for the less privileged in the area of education derives from the fact that most of the so-called less privileged among us today are victims of lack of education.”
She was worried to observe that much of the social, economic and health problems among youth, especially girls in the northern parts of the country today, like violence, restiveness unemployment, poverty, diseases like VVF are largely caused by lack of access to quality and functional education. Miss Jennifer attributed the commandeering of under-age girls into untimely marriages to lack of education, an ugly situation, she also noted is largely responsible for the rampant cases of VVF in the area.
She urged the parents and teachers to take adequate care of every school children under their care so as to enable them have the opportunity to unlock their potentials. “Children are great reservoirs for future great leaders and we should not take their education for granted. In these young people I see world leaders of tomorrow, doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, diplomats etc, and we should do everything possible to assist them realise these potentials.”
She commended the efforts of the First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan and the First Lady of Abia state, Mrs Mercy Theodore Orji for their wonderful achievements in their various pro-people pet projects, which she observed are the right steps in the right direction. She urged the federal and state government to increase their budgetary allocations to education and urge governors to emulate the commendable education footsteps of the governor of Imo state, Owelle Rochas Okorocha in declaring education free in their various states.
