The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, on Thursday, called for special programmes in the country that would take care of children of indigent parents roaming about the streets.

He made the call in Sokoto when he received a combined team of UNICEF and High Level Women Advocates (HiLWA), who paid him a courtesy visit.

According to the Sultan, the children roaming about the streets are the children of the poor and there is nothing the parents can do about it because of their financial position.

He said, “Their plight was not their making or the making of their parents but a clear manifestation of decay in the system.

“They are not our making but the situation we found ourselves in the country.

“It is a very serious issue and there is the need for a programme that will take care of them because such children are now ready-made weapons for violence.”

The monarch urged UNICEF to organise a forum where stakeholders would be invited to discuss issues concerning girl-child education in the country.

Abubakar further tasked the Fund to focus more on teachers’ training, saying, “Our problems are basically the lack of qualified teachers and facilities.”

Earlier, the Chief Field Officer of UNICEF, Mr. Muhammad Muydeen, had said 10.5 million school-age children were out of school and 65.3 per cent of them were girls, with most of them being northerners.

He added that primary one intake in the north stood at 28.7 per cent and the national average was 43.8 per cent.

According to him, only one in four women in northern Nigeria is literate, compared with three in every five in the southern part of the country. (NAN)

•Photo shows Sultan of Sokoto