The golden age of fifty is seen by many as a time to wine, dine and make merry, but for Mrs. Mary Akpobome wife of ace comedian Alibaba Akpobome, it’s a time to give back to the society through a worthy cause.

The banker who is currently an executive director at one of the country’s commercial banks chose her birthday to kick start societal reform through education and it is super amazing.

Through the Purple Girl Foundation, she is set to provide support for girl child education in the country and it couldn’t have come at a better time. At the moment, the available data shows Nigeria is doing badly and the percentage of schoolage girls denied education keeps growing because the government has failed to put the necessary mechanisms in place. According to the United Nation Children Education Fund (UNICEF), Nigeria has the highest population of out-of-school children in the world, put at over ten million. Out of this number, sixty percent are female, which shows how endangered the girl child is in Nigeria.

At the moment there is no known policy from the government to tackle this menace, and this is why what the Purple Foundation is set to do is praiseworthy. According to the founder, the foundation would support under-served young girls in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions with tuition, education support and health insurance. This laudable intervention is starting with three states, and will further spread to other states in Nigeria. The long term effect of this is that the menace of increasing out-of-school girls will be nipped in the bud.

As much as the Purple Girl foundation is kick-starting the process, it is important other well-meaning Nigerians invest their resources to tackle this menace.

Education is light, let it shine for all.

tosin adesina