The girls, Amarachi Chinedu, 9, and Suwebat Husseini, 12, were forced to skip school by their parents in order to serve some domestic assistance.
Sanwo-Olu and the young girls
Two young girls hawking during school hours have been promised grant scholarship by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
It happened that the governor was on his way to a function when he momentarily halted his convoy to attend to a disturbing situation.
It was a sight of two underage girls on an errand for a bean cake vendor during school hours.
The girls, Amarachi Chinedu, 9, and Suwebat Husseini, 12, were forced to skip school by their parents in order to serve some domestic assistance.
The girls were going to deliver buckets of peeled beans and pepper to a grinder when the Governor sighted them at Anthony Village area. It was a glance that presented a discomforting image for Sanwo-Olu, who revved his convoy to a stop to find out the reason the girls were not in school.
Amarachi’s story left the Governor to shudder throughout the encounter. Her mother is a teacher, but the nine-year-old was not allowed to go to school because her parents could not afford the current session’s tuition fees. Amarachi would have to miss a school year because of this reason.
Suwebat’s mother is the bean cake seller for whom the girls were running an errand. Her parents, who are Jigawa State indigenes, relocated to Lagos months back. Suwebat’s four male siblings were all in school at the time she was stopped on the road by the Governor. But her parents preferred she stayed back home to help with some domestic chores.
The decisions taken by girls’ parents, Sanwo-Olu said, could rob the little ones of their innocence, their future and put them at a disadvantage among their peers. The Governor stressed that his encounter with the girls left his heart bleeding.
Salvaging the situation, Sanwo-Olu, at the scene, told the girls he would personally take up the responsibility for their education and upbringing, promising to enroll them in school to continue with their education. The Governor’s decision had been communicated to the girls’ parents.
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