…As NAWOJ seeks collaboration on girl education
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The National President of Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ , Comrade Ladi Bala has commended the Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund, Dr. Bello Maigari for this leadership style of transparency, accountability and due process.
Comrade Bala made this know on Friday when she led her team on a courtesy, advocacy and congratulatory visit to Dr. Maigari in his office in Abuja.
The NAWOJ leader said that the examplary success of the agency under Dr. Maigari is worthy of emulation and an inspiration to the Association.
She said, ” Your unprecedented achievements have endearged NAWOJ to you and has prompted us to identify with you. You have recorded a lot of achievements as the Executive Secretary, of interest, in 2021 NLTF was rated as the second best in the area of due process, accountability and transparency in the country among all other ministries, agencies in the country, which is a mantra of the Federal Government.”
When ICPC released it’s report on due process you topped the scorecard again and to us in the media space saddled with the responsibility of holding people accountable so finding one already holding itself accountable we are encouraged that you are setting the pace and we call on other government agencies, Ministeries and parastatals to find out what instrument you have deployed to achieve this unprecedented results.
Speaking further she said, ” Nigerians have identified corruption as a huge problem, and so for us to get it right, we all have to take individual resolutions to put all hands on deck to achieve a collective result to change the narrative not only for ourselves but for generations of Nigerians yet unborn.
She commended the NLTF boss for fostering funds interventions in key areas like education, health and sports.
We know education is key to remains the bedrock of of any development in the works , and an uneducated population lacks basic skills to foster.development.
Comrade Bala further called for collaboration between the NLTF and NAWOJ on areas of interventions in education especially for the girl child who make up about 60 percent of out – of – school girls particularly from Northern Nigeria.
She said,” UNESCO latest report on education shows Nigeria recorded about 20 million out – of – school children, this is sad, and so NAWOJ is concerned as mothers.
Meanwhile, the NAWOJ lead called for collaboration to support the NAWOJ project for the girl- child tagged, ” Education Initiative” targeted at putting 10,000 girls in school across Nigeria.
She explained that these less privileged children from are already identified in Communities especially in Northern Nigeria.
“After taking them back to school, we will provide them with learning aids and school fees.”
She also called on the agency to support female journalists for a nation- wide capacity building in digital and data driven journalism to enable them catch up with the global media trend.
The Executive Secretary of NLTF, Dr. Bello Maigari appreciated the NAWOJ President and commended her as a true Nigerian who loves to see the progress in areas of transparency, accountability and good governance.
He also thanked the Association for identifying with the successes of the agency and promised to keep up the trend of due process, transparency and accountability.
Maigari said, “This agency seeks ventilate views, our achievements and progress through the media”
He attributed the successes of the agency to dint of hardwork and professionalism.
NLTF is setup for every Nigerian because our resources and proceeds come from the activities of every Nigerian.”
He explained that the mandate of the agency is take custody of a certain percentage of the proceeds of Lottery operating in the country and channel the resources into promoting causes in various areas like Education, Health public welfare , social services, relief and disaster management.
He noted that the mandate of the agency is a very competitive one leaving out nothing , one saddled with promotion of social inclusion for all Nigerians.
Maigari also promised to partner with NAWOJ after due process, adding ” with due diligence we will support the girl – child education and children out of school to help this segment of Nigerians to support to help them realise their dreams.
