Governor of Kano state, Umar Ganduje has ordered the arrest of parents who send their children to beg on the streets instead of going to school alongside the children.
He made this known at the interactive session with UNICEF Youth Advocacy in the Government House.
He also revealed that he had joined efforts with the Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II and concluded plans to send a bill to the state house assembly to effect it.
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According to him, the bill will ensure that primary and secondary education will be free and compulsory for all school-age children in the state, adding that, “with the bill signed into law, parents who refused to take their children to go to school will be taken to court.
“Children begging on the street instead of going to school will be arrested and their parents arrested and charge to court for prosecution because begging is not our religion. Begging is not Islam. Those children who are begging will be arrested and their parents will be taken to court for allowing their children to be begging instead of attending school.”
He added,
“We hope you as development partners when we are being accused by mischievous people; we want you to come forward and defend us. Anything we do for the development of education, if we receive undue criticism, I urge you to demonstrate and we will give you protection. That is the only way we can get a change. Otherwise, all that we are doing will remain theoretical.”
“I wish what is happening now happened 20 years ago. It would have been a different story by now. Kano state is the most populous state in the federation. We want our population to be a quality population. There are some countries in the world that don’t have a drop of oil, but yet their economy is strong. The main reason is education, even development, and technology.
“So, we being the most populous state in the world, we want our population to be an asset. As China has conquered the world as a result of the population that is how Kano will conquer Nigeria as a result of population.”
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