Headlines
How my proposed law on restricting poor men from marrying many wives, suffered a set back – Emir Sanusi
Nasiru Yusuf
The deposed Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi ll, has revealed how his proposed law while on the throne, which will restrict poor men in the emirate from marrying many wives, suffered a set back because all 40 members of the state legislature, were men who never suffered domestic violence nor divorced.
KANO FOCUS reports that Sanusi revealed this at a three-day ‘Transforming Education Summit’ on the sidelines of the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York.
He said: “I tried to pass a law in Kano, a kind of a family law. We have 40 members of the legislature, all of them are men. None of them has been beaten by their spouses before. None of them has been divorced. None of them understands what women feel when they are victims of injustice.
“But if we had just 10 Women in that house, that law would have passed because each of them would speak about her experience with his or her sister or her mother and bring to bear to the men, the condition that women suffer in an oppressive patriarchal system.
“So we’ve got to engage with the system itself, with the decision making process itself, with the policy makers themselves and how that change for us to get the kind of progress I’ve been talking about”, he said.
Sanusi advocates women empowerment, girls’ education
The deposed Emir of Kano has made a passionate call for scaling up girls’ education and women empowerment in sub-Saharan Africa.
The former CBN boss said he had devoted his life to advancing the cause of the girl-child, women empowerment and gender equality.
“I have had a lifetime commitment and advocacy to access to quality education and gender equality. In my work as governor of the central bank, I pushed for gender representation at the highest levels in the boards and management of the banks,” Mr Sanusi said. “And as emir or Kano, I pushed for the codification of putting law to address the rights of women.”
He added, “As an SDGs advocate, I have focused on girl-child education in particular, as the main SDG that I’m focused on are SDG four and SDG five.”
Sanusi pointed out that providing the girl-child education and the opportunity to earn income and contribute meaningfully to society was a silver bullet that would address many other SDGs.
“I am often asked why I advocate for the girl child, and my response is simple: if you educate the girl child, you deal with so many other socio-economic issues and make progress towards breaking the intergenerational cycle of illiteracy and poverty,” he explained.
The ex-CBN governor said it had become imperative to emphasise the importance of quality teachers in curbing inequalities in learning outcomes, particularly in under-served regions.
Nasiru Yusuf
The United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) has commended the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), for their financial investment of $108,493,125, 871 in girls education programme in Northern Nigeria.
KANO FOCUS reports that Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mr Rahama Farah, gave the commendation at the official closing of the 10-year intervention project GEP3 in Kano on Monday.
He said that the 10-year project had invested heavily in teacher development which improved the learning of teachers in Integrated Qur’anic and Islamic schools.
Farah said that the trained teachers demonstrated the minimum teaching competencies to about 30 per cent against the 2 per cent baseline impacting on learning outcomes.
According to him, “in spite of achievements of the project, there is still need for more investment in education and girls education in Nigeria and Kano, to ensure that all children had equal opportunity in education.
“Kano has the highest transition rate to junior secondary schools of only 28 per cent, which means that we need to work hard to remove the bottlenecks that prevented positive transition,” Farah said.
The Chief also pledged continous partnership with Kano state government in providing educational support for all.
In his remarks, the Kano state Commissioner for Education, Abdullahi Yan Shana, has commended the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) for their intervention project on Girls education project (GEP3) in Kano.
He said that the project had indeed improved the capacity of teachers to deliver effective learning and improved governance to strengthen girls education.
According to him, “The 20172018 annual schools census of the primary school pupils stood at 3,807,588 with 1,9778, 884 as girls.
“But in 20192020, the Annual School Census indicates 3,933,572 in which 2,050,309 were girls.
This signifies that there was 96.5 per cent increase of girls enrolment and retention in the state.
Yan Shana specifically commended some component of the intervention such as community engagement of mothers association.
He explained that the intervention had indeed gingered and sensitised rural women to the benefits of girls education.
KANO FOCUS reports that the Girls Education Project (GEP3) is a 10 years intervention supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The project was implemented in partnership with the Federal and state ministries of education and other educational agencies in Kano and was funded by the UK government through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Nasiru Yusuf
Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has inaugurated a very powerful committee on inter-religious conference, aimed at organising a befitting national conference towards a more tolerant Nigeria.
KANO FOCUS reports that the event took place at Africa House, Government House, Kano, Monday.
The event was attended by some popular clergymen from Islam and Christianity as 23-member committee was inaugurated.
The occasion, according to him, is being “Considered very well for the development of the state, the nation and humanity in general.
“The management of diversity in Nigeria has become an issue. A very important issue. There must always be respect of one religion on other religions.”
Governor Ganduje argued that, Kano, being an oldest civilisation, that is highly cosmopolitan, “…for the state to continue coexist with other nationalities, we need programmes like this. We are trying to consolidate on that.”
Sheikh Muhammad Bin Uthman, Chief Imam of Sahaba Juma’at Mosque, is the Chairman of the Committee. While Arch. Bishop Peter Ogunmuyiwa (PhD) is the Co-Chair of the Committee. State Commissioner for Information Muhammad Garba serves as the Committee Secretary.
Governor Ganduje said “The membership of the committee looks at the diversity of this nation, the utterances you people are making, your behaviours towards diversity management and your commitment to nation building.
“You are to organise a befitting inter-religious Conference, you choose the appropriate theme, select appropriate date, day and venue for the proposed Conference. Part of your terms of reference, is to also provide adequate publicity, before during and after the conference.”
Nasiru Yusuf
The leadership of Ward Development Committees and People with Disabilities have commended Kano state government for increasing the number of beneficiaries of the basic healthcare provision fund (BHCPF).
KANO FOCUS reports that the state chairman of Ward Development Committee (WDC) Malam Bashir Adamu Jigirya Secretary General of Nigeria Association of the Blind Kano state chapter, Comrade Abdralrazak Ado Zango, made the commendation in an interview with journalists at PERL/ECP office.
Jigirya commended Kano state government for its prompt response to their demand saying that BHCPF has improved the health of the vulnerable and people with special needs.
Malam Bashir Adamu Jigirya
He however, raised concern on how National Identification Number (NIN) submission hindered some beneficiaries from accessing BHCPF services citing new born babies as example.
Also speaking Comrade Abdralrazak Ado Zango, explained that they advocated for the increment due to the fact that, despite the total number of 3,474 forms allocated to the 9 clusters of PWD, leprosy survivors are yet to be enrolled into the BHCPF scheme because of finger print capture.
Comrade Abdralrazak Ado Zango
He maintained that, discrimination against people with special needs,choice of health facilities, failure to refer spinal cord injury patients to facilities, are some of the challenges bedeviling the scheme.
“We are calling in KSCHMA to ensure continuous orientation of health workers to change their attitudes towards PWDs,” Zango appealed.
BHCPF enrollment
It would be recalled that Kano state Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA), has approved the enrollment of more beneficiaries of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), to promote inclusive access to health services.
The approval was sequel to an advocacy letter, signed by coalition of citizens groups which comprises of CSOs, PWDs, WDCs dated August 23, 2022, supported by PERL/ECP, addressed to the Executive Secretary Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA) Dr. Halima Mijinyawa.
BHCPF enrollment
The advocacy centred around increase in number of beneficiaries, to reduce out of pocket expenditure to access health care services.
Similarly, another letter was sent to the Kano state ministry of finance by the group, seeking for the status of 1% consolidated Revenue fund (CRF), to address vulnerable package for contributory beneficiaries.
A circular obtained by KANO FOCUS showed approval of increasing the number of people living with special needs and vulnerable groups, into the Programme across the forty four local government areas.
BHCPF enrollment
Lafiya programme and PERL/ECP are providing technical support to Kano State Led Accountability Mechanism (KanSLAM) and Ward Development Committees (WDCs) towards successful implementation of BHCPF.
The Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) scheme.
The BHCPF is a health intervention scheme established under National Health Act (2014) to provide basic health care services to poor and vulnerable.
It is to reduce maternal mortality rate by 31% (from 576 to 400 per 100,000 live births), neo maternal rate by 33% (from 39 to 26 per 1,000 live births) with 50% of BHCPF.
The purpose of the BHCPF is to ensure the provision of basic health care package of health services to all Nigerians through National Health Insurance Scheme NHIS and state Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency KSCHMA.
Another purpose of the programme is “Strengthening the Primary Health Care (PHC) system through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) with 45% of BHCPF.
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