The Nigerian government has washed its hands off the issues of out-of-school children, saying the Federal Government was not the cause of most of the problems associated with the education sector in Nigeria.

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who made this declaration on Tuesday in Abuja while declaring open a two-day national dialogue on girls with the theme, ‘National dialogue on girls: Towards a girl-friendly Nigeria,’ said the responsibility of checking the menace lay with the various state governments.

At the programme jointly organized by the African Child Policy Forum, Women Arise for Change Initiative and the Africa-Wide Movement for Children, Osinbajo identified social and cultural prejudices as some of the critical problems militating against the girl child in Nigeria.

He added that despite efforts by the Federal Government to curtail the menace, states and local governments also had roles to play.

Nigerian Govt Not To Blame For Most Problems In Education Sector

“We run a federal system and questions of education, medical care are essential state matters. Primary education is state and local government matter. The Federal Government has only about 100 schools of the hundreds of thousands of schools,” the VP said.

“Sometimes, when we talk about out-of-school children and problems associated with education, we tend to focus on the Federal Government whereas the Federal Government does not run primary school. That is not the business of FG. It is the business of state and local government,” he added.

Osinbajo also advised victims of child abuse not to take it as the end of life, adding that examples abound of such victims that have shrugged it off to make it in life.