Eucharia’s experience

Editorial

NIGERIA has the unenviable world record of the country with the highest number of out-of-school children, which stands at more than 13 million. With the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number would obviously be much higher, with dire consequences for the country’s economic productivity in future. Already, the country is the poverty capital of the world.

All these ignominious records of illiteracy and poverty rates point to one thing: the country has not yet acted as if it understands the full value of education in a twenty-first century world where ideas, technology and artificial intelligence have put development on auto-pilot. No nation can develop without the education of its children. The World Bank and other multilateral agencies try in very integrative ways to fund and co-fund certain development projects to assist developing nations assuage the effects of illiteracy and its effects on countries’ economies.

The aversion for education of the girl-child in Nigeria is almost at a crisis point, especially in the Northern region. The awareness about the value of education in general, and especially that of the girl-child, seems very low across the country. The parochial perception that the woman’s place is in the kitchen still holds sway. The root cause of child marriages across the country is the fact that most men tend to see the girl-child as mere sex tools meant to do domestic duties in addition to bearing children.

The revelation by a very successful Nollywood actress, Eucharia Anunobi, that her father refused to train her beyond high school because she is a girl who, according to him, cannot help keep his name as she would be married to another man and adopt that man’s name is one of the samples of ignorance by some men in Nigeria. Today, the same lady, through her personal efforts, determination and resilience just bagged her Ph.D. in Christian Education and Ministerial Arts.

Ironically, today, none of the male children that her father insisted on training has carried his name to the global stage as Eucharia. This stands as a practical lesson on the choices most people make and the value they place on education. Every child, male or female, thrives better with education and the society benefits more from an educated population.

Indeed, each child, according to the UN Charter on Child Rights, irrespective of gender, has the right to education as part of his or her human rights. Nigeria and many other countries in contravention of some of the UN Charter and Treaties are almost always at the bottom of the global development ladder.

This very vibrant Nollywood star that has starred in many award-winning movies would have had her talent buried but for her determination to educate herself. Today, she is a proud Ph.D holder. She has the last laugh. The irony is that Eucharia is the poster-child of the Anunobi family on a global scale today. Her father had seemingly shot himself on the foot because, contrary to his belief that the male children he elected to train so that they can ‘carry his name’ everywhere seem not to be as popular with whatever they have achieved, as the daughter he refused to train.

We however acknowledge that Eucharia and her father are metaphors in our socio-religious environment. The father did not congenitally imbibe the dislike for the education of the girl-child. It is a product of his socio-cultural environment. He grew up in a family that sang the same song about a woman belonging to a man after marriage, and being consigned to domestic duties and bearing children.  He grew up in an environment where the boy-child is a preferred child, given all the advantages of education and nurturing for leadership. He too is a victim. He did not know better.

But we feel that this is exactly why modern governments exist. Governments especially have the role of making and executing policies that develop the society. Formal education is a human invention that is not always embraced by all humans. That is why governments make laws to compel citizens to act in ways that can be mutually beneficial. The constitution provides for the responsibility of the parents and state to educate and care for every child.

Successive governments in Nigeria have not been consistent in enforcing the laws on education, especially that of the girl-child. There is still widespread aversion for the education of the girl-child across the country. Society has a lot to benefit by training all children, boy or girl. Today, many remarkable world leaders are women. An educated woman is an asset and her productivity gave rise to the social mantra, ‘when you educate the woman, you educate the nation’.

Eucharia has achieved her dreams with dint of hard work and perseverance, but millions of girls across Nigeria are not so lucky. The recent focus on abduction of mainly school girls starting from the Chibok girls a few years ago stems from that belief that girls are not meant to be educated.  It is the duty of all tiers of government to make sure parents and guardians educate girls in their care. There must be an insistence on the acquisition of the basic education, given the huge advantages of education in national development.

Educated women are assets to any nation as they are the nurturers of future generations, and education impacts on their ability to raise their own children. Even basic nutrition, delayed child bearing as a means of population control and other reproductive health issues are all precursors to a better and more productive nation.

We congratulate Eucharia and believe she is a good role model not only for younger girls but to the patriarchal society that is blind to the value of girl-child education in a 21st century world. The government must be very proactive in reversing this trend.