‘Nigeria is the tiger of Africa.  The UNICEF  has been in collaboration with Bauchi state government over the years and has maintained a good relationship with the different administrations that has been in the saddle’

Ms Jean Gough; the Country Representative of UNICEF made this known during her courtesy visit to Bauchi.

‘Bauchi State is one of those states that with a low human development index. Our programmes are geared towards catering for a considerable chunk of the population wallowing below the poverty line.

As part of our efforts in improving education in the state, we are putting premium on the girl-child. The girl-child education programme in Bauchi caters for girls in primary and junior secondary schools.

Our utmost focus in the education sector is largely because we believe that without education, socioeconomic developments will remain eons away from the people of the state. We want to ensure you that we will continue to support and provide you with the technical support.

With over 10.5 million Nigerians both at the formal and tertiary levels of education, the country’s working population is a huge potential with the wherewithal to propel the nation’s economic growth. It is high time we stopped the trend of churning out a blunt youth population.

In order to consolidate efforts for the success ahead, we have been working on the curriculum the United States with the purpose of upgrading our modules.

Malnutrition among poor families has also been one of the hindrances encountered by children within the school age range. We are well aware of this malady and therefore making arrangements on hoe to stem the tide’ she said

She further explained that a thousand days in a child’s life is very important because when a child lack essential vitamins and minerals needed for development, the brain is gone. Thus, the investment of these early years is very important.

‘We have seen that 70 percent of the diseases in the State has been reduced because of the focus on primary health care and we owe that to the technical support from the Review of the word PHT group. We also acknowledge the Bill Millender Gift foundation for their financial largesse which was immensely influential in the eradication of polio. Bauchi State is glad to be part of this success story.’ She enthused

She stated that this is the first time Nigeria has made it one year without recording any case of polio case thus, putting her on the right track with other African countries who have also achieved such feats.  She then urged everyone to see themselves as stakeholders in sustaining the feat.