Gordon Brown calls for focus on abducted girls

The United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, on Monday urged the world to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

Boko Brown, in a message to mark the Day of the African Child at the UN headquarters in New York, also praised the youth around the world as they mobilised to demand education for all.


The theme for this year is: “A child friendly, quality, free and compulsory education for all children in Africa.”

“Thousands of people have come together united with one cause: Safe schools for every girl and boy.

“While the global community has failed to deliver safe schooling, young people are demanding safe, quality schools for all children everywhere, and they are standing in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok, and all those around the world who face these struggles,” Brown said.

The UN has repeatedly called for concerted efforts to tackle the insurgency in North-East, and reiterated its support for ongoing efforts by the Nigerian government to secure the schoolgirls’ safe release.

The Day of the African Child is marked on June 16 every year to honour the memory of school children killed in 1976 during a demonstration in Soweto, South Africa.

The News Agency of Nigeria recalled that the students were protesting inferior education by the apartheid administration and demanding lessons in their own language.

The African Union (AU) designated the Day in 1991, encouraging events to be organised around the world promoting children’s rights.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the AU is headquartered, an assembly of young people also converged on Monday at the organisation to deliver a call of action about education to world leaders.