After defeating Sumaiya Ismail and Al-Mustapha Umar, 14-year-old Fadila Sani, a JSS 3 student at Government Girls Secondary School Sandamu, was chosen as the new speaker for the 5th Assembly of the Katsina State Children Parliament.
Fadila, who is the first girl to be chosen as speaker of the Katsina Children Parliament, was also chosen by Save the Children Worldwide (SCI) as the state’s “Girls’ Champion” and would represent it whenever necessary for national and international assignments.
After they were sworn in, Fadila spoke, promising that the Katsina Children’s Parliament would “work rigourously to bring to the forefront child sensitive issues as well as support all efforts by diverse stakeholders to make Katsina State the safest place to be a child in accordance with the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the provisions of the Child Rights Acts 2003.”
The newly appointed speaker further pledged that the 5th Assembly of the Katsina State Children’s Parliament “shall advocate, sensitize, campaign, and pool all resources within its powers at every given opportunity towards the attainment of laudable reforms particularly as it affects children in the state.”
Fadila stated that the 5th Assembly of the Katsina Children Parliament will seek to implement the Katsina Child Protection Bill as well as review and implement all current child-related and child-sensitive policies, laws, and programs on education, health, as well as others, making sure that they are given top priority and not treated as a second choice.
The State House of Assembly is to be more child-inclusive by providing enough resources for the conduct of their legislative sittings at least twice a year, as stipulated in their constitution and standing order, which is another request made by the 5th assembly of the Katsina Children Parliament.
Additionally, they prayed for the creation of a House Committee on Children Affairs and structural changes to the Katsina State House of Assembly.
Other principal officers elected into the 5th Assembly of the Katsina Children Parliament to run its affairs for the next three years include: Sadiq Sani Garba as Deputy Speaker, Muhammed Aminu as House Leader, Fatima Abdullahi as Deputy House Leader, Aisha Bashir as House Clark, Abdulhakeem Yakubu as Deputy Clark, Al-Mustapha Umar as Chief Whip, Aminu Aliyu as Deputy Chief Whip, and David Henry Ola as the Mace Bearer.
On behalf of the speaker of the Katsina State House of Assembly, Hon. Tasiu Maigari, the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Hon. Abubakar Alibaba, administered the oath of office to the new Katsina Children Parliament leaders.
Fadila expressed her gratitude to the former lawmakers for working to ensure that the child right act was passed into law while they were in office. Additionally, she applauded the Katsina State House of Assembly for establishing a committee to examine the child right legislation before it was passed into law. She also expressed her gratitude to Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State for his support of the law.
The new speaker also praised Save the Children International in collaboration with the Cuppy Foundation, INEC, the Department of Girl Child Education, and Child Development for their guidance and cooperation in making sure that they are well coordinated as development partners of the Children Parliament.
A project of Save the Children International (SCI), with assistance financing from the Cuppy foundation, the Nigeria Children Parliament calls for the protection of children and the execution of the Child Rights Act.