By Charles Kumolu, Deputy Editor, Sunday Vanguard

BEING the first female Chief Justice  of Nigeria, CJN, is not the only thing  that sets apart Honourable Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar.  So many aspects of her career progression have profound symbolism.

The significance is not only restricted to the legal profession but also the girl-child education in this part of the world. Certainly, her birth on November 20, 1944, was at a time the education of the girl-child wasn’t a priority in the system.

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It was about four years before the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which made education a basic human right. In fact, educating the girl-child at the time was not considered a central driver of national development.

Gender discriminatory

For instance, of the 57 secondary schools in Nigeria at the time, only eight were exclusively for girls. This perhaps helps in understanding how challenging that period