Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,Director-General of the World Trade Organization, (WTO) Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,has begged kidnappers and bandits to stop abducting children.
She spoke during her visit to the Ministry of Women Affairs in Abuja,where she also implored the Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen to work in synergy with the President and the Finance Minister, to revive the initiative which was designed to ensure all schools in Nigeria are safe from attacks in the future.
She said:“I am concerned about the abduction of our girls and boys in schools. I have spoken out on this, it really makes my heart bleed and weep because when these abductions happen to the girls, the first instinct of the parents is to say they won’t send them back to school because nobody wants their child abducted whether boys or girls, but it is almost fatal for the girls.
“Solar lighting, a fence is necessary to keep the schools safe. If you walk into some of the schools even in villages close by where I have been, nothing! There is no barrier, anyone can walk in. So, let us make the schools a little bit safe.
“Those children are the ones we are going to train for the future, so we must take care of them. I am saying to all the women, whatever you can do to demonstrate to these people that our children are not for play, please do that”
She also spoke at a meeting with women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and emphasized the need for the country to transit from oil and gas based economy to other non-oil sectors.
Nigeria, she said,would not experience desired growth unless it diversifies its economy.
She said: “I have kept on harping that Nigeria should transit from oil and gas based economy to producing in other non-oil sector.”This is because of the climate change. Fossil fuels which are oil and gas, that Nigeria depends on, are on their way out.Many countries are saying that from 2025, they are not going to allow petrol powered vehicles into their countries.
“In the event of this development, we need to ask ourselves, what is Nigeria going to do?What are our children going to depend on?We have to think out what to do or else, we will be in trouble in the near future.”
