Atiku praises Sokoto State for Right to Education Bill

Turaki Adamawa, former Vice President of Nigeria and a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has expressed delight on the Sokoto State government’s Right to Education Bill.

Atiku on his Twitter handle on Thursday said: “I am delighted by the Sokoto State government’s Right to Education bill. Well done Gov”.

According to him, “Education remains high-priority. Devolving responsibility to states will ensure that focus will be on critical areas at their grassroots.

“Although there is a federal law making education compulsory for all children, states will do a better job at executing directly”. He said.

Sokoto State Government said it has adopted the Right to Education Bill 2016 in order to protect the right to education of children between six and 18 years in the state.

The bill which seeks to legalise the right to education for children in Sokoto is unprecedented by any state in Nigeria, the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal disclosed on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that the Tambuwal administration had declared state of emergency on education in the state in December 2015.

“Sokoto will be the first state in Nigeria to provide right to education, thereby bringing it in conformity with status of fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy under chapter two of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,” the state’s Justice Commissioner, Suleiman Usman stated in Sokoto.

“This Bill seeks to create a Social and Community Development Agency ‎for the execution of social and community development projects throughout Sokoto state,” he explained.