Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said education, especially for women, has a multiplier effect.

This is as he said leaders owe their people the duty to educate them.

Osinbajo said this in Abuja on Saturday evening at an event organised to mark the 2021 Mass Literacy Day by the MALLPAI Foundation, a non-governmental organisation founded in 2009 by Aisha Bagudu, the wife of the Kebbi State Governor.

Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, revealed this on Sunday in a statement titled, ‘We owe our people duty to educate and empower them, says Osinbajo.’

He said MALLPAI, which means ‘Mass Literacy for the Less Privileged and Almajiri Initiative’ addressed concerns around illiteracy and out-of-school children.

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He quoted the Vice President to have said, “We owe our people the duty to educate them. We owe our people a duty to lift their minds to the level where they can benefit maximally from their environment and give benefit to others.”

“So, at the most basic level, the ability to read and write, not just in one’s language, but in global languages as well is crucial. To be deprived of education is to be deprived of the means of the pursuit of a dignified existence where one can fully contest or collaborate with others for the benefits that life offers.”

He observed that getting disadvantaged out-of-school children into formal education “is a massive challenge, especially where, in some cases, “the prevailing culture is an obstacle.”