By Suzan Edeh

Bauchi—The Bauchi State Government has awarded  Special Education Scholarship to 1,080 Orphans and Vulnerable Children, OVC,  worth N187m for six academic years.

Presenting the scholarship materials to the beneficiaries yesterday at the Government House in Bauchi, the state  Governor, Isa Yuguda said that the idea for the creation of the agency for OVC started in 2007 with the establishment of the unit under the state Ministry of Women Affairs that was vested with the responsibilty for coordinating all OVC programmes in the state.

Yuguda said: “The establishment of an agency for OVC in the state was very challenging because the state lacked the finacial resources to fund it. The state government took the bull by the horn by initiating an executive bill for the creation of the agency.

’’When the bill was presented before the State House of Assembly, it was deliberated upon and passed into law. The state government also decided to deduct one percent from the salaries of civil servants to fund the agency because of the dwindling resources of the state.”

A visibly emotional Yuguda who expressed his symphathy for orphans and the less priviledged in the society, however lamented over the attitudes of some civil servants in the state who opposed the deduction of one percent of their salaries to fund the agency.

“It is very shocking that some civil servants in the state were kicking against the funding of the OVC through the deduction of just one percent from their salaries because they felt it was not an obligation.

“Yes, it is true that charity is not mandatory, but we are all stakeholders in the state and these less priveledged in the society are under our care.If we do not care for them, who will do it?,” the Governor said, apparently referring to secondary school teachers in the state who embarked on strike to protest the deduction of their allowances to fund the OVC.

Yuguda then commended the state House of Assembly for passing the bill for the creation of the OVC agency into law, saying that the law had alleviated the sufferings of the less privleged in the state.

Also speaking on the occassion, the Executive Chairperson of the Bauchi State Agency for OVC, BASOVCA, Hajiya Baheejah Mahmood said that the state had 750,000 orphan and vunerable children based on a research the agency conducted.

She said this discovery made the agency to swing into action by developing life changing programmes aimed at addressing the needs of the OVC, adding that so far it had reached thousands of OVC’s and their care-givers.

Mahmood further said that the scholarship is designed to offer the beneficiaries more access to primary and secondary education without the possiblity of dropping out due to lack of funds.