Why We Formed Northern Awareness Movement — Bagwanje

The Global Coordinator of Northern Awareness Movement (NAM), Mr Amir Bagwanje, has said that the movement was formed to “embark on awareness and education campaign to reverse the ugly trends of incessant conflicts, illiteracy, and abject poverty” in the north and Nigeria as a whole.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Mr Bagwanje said NAM also aims to create awareness to “tolerate our differences, sensitise our people on the importance of education and online distance learning”, as well as “teaching our people how to make applications for scholarships and jobs online which are mostly left for people from other parts of the country.

“The movement will establish virtual learning centres where almajiri graduates and other adult students can attend classes. Students will receive lectures online from our members who mostly reside abroad. These centres will also be used as a bastion for online applications for jobs, school admissions, scholarships, and other national programmes.

“We need to address the issue of our out-of-school kids. We need to prepare for the emerging method of schooling via the internet, radio, and television, because COVID-19 has fast-forwarded the necessity of distance learning which will become the new normal in a few years”.

Mr Bagwanje lamented that the north was doing poorly in all the major socio-economic indicators such as school enrolment, nutrition level, infant mortality, household income, unemployment, and diseases, stressing that a deliberate strategy must be deployed to checkmate these trends.