Educating the girl-child is silver bullet to eradicating poverty - Sanusi

A former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Lamido Sanusi is canvassing for the education of the girl-child and believes it is the ‘silver bullet’ to eradicating poverty in Nigeria.

Sanusi spoke on Thursday during The Platform, a program to mark Nigeria’s 60th Independence anniversary, aired on Channels Television.

“When you look at a country like Nigeria, my sense is that the focus on the education of the girl-child and the place of the woman, are the most critical SDGs we should focus on,” the economist stated.

“If you educate a girl-child, you deal with a number of issues. You deal with the opportunities you gave to the rise of poverty, you deal with inter-generational poverty, you deal with mortality, you deal with nutrition; you deal with the education of the child because the children of educated women are more likely to be educated than the children of those who did not go to school; you deal with water and sanitation and so on.”

Sanusi explained that education of the girl-child is at the heart of development and raising the standard of living.

“So, the single silver bullet for me,  that goes to the heart of underdevelopment and poverty, is educating the girl-child and providing her with an opportunity to raise against poverty,”  the 14th Emir of Kano added.

De-emphasis On Merit

He equally lamented that in the country, especially in the public service, there is “a general de-emphasis on merit.”

According to him, there “is obviously a general de-emphasis on merit in our institutions.”

Giving an instance, Sanusi said while the Nigerian constitution mandates each state to produce a minister, “it does not say anything about the qualifications of a minister. It does not say that the minister must be qualified and competent to do the particular job he is given.”