The Director General for National Centre for Women Development (NCWD), Dr. Asabe Vilita Bashir; has set conditions for the admission of orphans and widows at Future Assured College in Borno. The 12-year Boko Haram insurgency has orphaned 59, 311 children along with over 50, 000 widows in the state. Asabe gave the conditions of admissions on Monday in Maiduguri, while Governor Babagana Zulum commissions the College that was initiated and built by the First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari. “Only 300 orphans will be admitted for the first academic session this year,” she declared, stating that as they progress academically; we’ll admit another set of 300.
She maintained that it is only the ‘orphans and widows’ that will be admitted into the College. On how orphans and widows benefit from the school, she said: “The widows are part of women being affected in the over a decade insurgency,” noting that many lives and property were destroyed, while the orphans and widows are taking refuge in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps and host communities. She said the Women Centre’s mandate is research, empowerment of women and documentation on them. She declared that any issue that concerns women is the centre’s business, despite the gender bias against women, particularly the vulnerable ones across the nation.
According to her, there is no amount of contribution in the education sector that could be too much for the children, particularly for the orphans in IDP camps. She therefore thanked Aisha for siting a first class educational institution in the state for orphans and widows. “What gladdens my heart is that the school belongs to the orphans,” she said, adding that no other pupil be admitted into the college; except the orphans. The Commissioner of Education, Lawan Wakilbe disclosed that as a result of the insurgency, the official figure of orphans stood at 59, 311. He lamented that this is another reminder of the task ahead and a good reason to appreciate the intervention by the first lady and mother of the nation.
