Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai has urged Nigeria to put emphasis on education.
The 20 year old Pakistani girls’ education activist made the plea during her visit to the West African country on Monday, where almost half of all the learning-age children – 10 million according to government – are not going to school.
Yousafzai became prominent in 2012, after being shot in the head by the Taliban in a school bus. The UN named her a ‘Messenger of Peace’ in April to promote girls’ eduction.
“At the age of 15 I was attacked and since then I have started campaigning for education to make sure that every child all around the world, there’s opportunity to go to school”, Yousafzai said
After meeting with acting president, Yousafzai told journalists government should declare a “state of emergency on education in Nigeria”
“I was really happy to hear positive response from the acting president that they are happy to ensure that they are happy with the suggestion of implementing emergency for education and that they are happy to work more on education”, she added.
The presidency didn’t react immediately on this call
Yousafzai has also campaigned against Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language.
The group abducted over 200 girls from their secondary school in 2014
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