Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has declared that any school age children who beg on the streets instead of going to school would be arrested and prosecuted in the state.
Governor Ganduje made this known an interactive session with UNICEF Youth Advocacy in Government House after declaring free primary and secondary education for school age children in the state.
The governor said his administration and the Emir of Kano, His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi II, have concluded plans to send a bill to the state House of Assembly to that effect.
According to him, when the bill is finally signed into law, parents who refused to take their children to go to school would be taken to court.
In the words of the governor, “Children begging on the street instead of going to school will be arrested and their parents arrested and charge to court for prosecution, because begging is not our religion.
“Begging is not Islam. Those children who are begging will be arrested and their parents will be taken to court for allowing their children to be begging instead of attending school.
READ ALSO: UPDATED: CAN re-elects Ayokunle as President
“We hope you as development partners, when we are being accused by mischievous people; we want you to come forward and defend us.
“Anything we do for the development of education, if we receive undue criticism, I urge you to demonstrate and we will give you protection. That is the only way we can get a change. Otherwise, all what we are doing will remain theoretical.
“I wish what is happening now happened 20 years ago. It would have been a different story by now. Kano state is the most populous state in the federation.
“We want our population to be a quality population. There are some countries in the world that don’t have a drop of oil, but yet their economy is strong. The main reason is education, even development and technology.
“So, we being the most populous state in the world, we want our population to be an asset.
“As a China has conquered the world as a result of population that is how Kano will conquer Nigeria as a result of population.” Ganduje said his administration has ensured that over 30, 000 primary and secondary school teachers get qualified certificates, adding that as it stands, Kano has less than three percent unqualified teachers, “and we are ensuring that they go back to school for their qualified certificate.