The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has called for urgent action to protect the girl child from abuses.
Buhari in a tweet on Friday to commemorate the International Day of the Girl-Child in Abuja stressed the need for parents to protect their children from all forms of violence and abuse.
The theme of the 2019 celebration is Girl Force: “Unscripted and Unstoppable”.
NAN reports that the day was which declared by the United Nations, was first celebrated on October 11, 2012.
The is dedicated to calling for more opportunities for girls and increase awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based on their gender.
The celebration of the day also “reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research.
“Today, I join millions of girls around the world to celebrate this year’s International Day of the Girl-child. The theme for this year’s celebration is “GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable” she tweeted.
She expressed appreciation on the progress made in terms of advocacy by women groups on the need to protect girls and women against any forms of gender-based violence.
“I am happy to note the progress that has been made in the area of activism by girls to protect their gender.
“I want to state that more needs to be done especially to address gender-based violence which seems to be more pronounced recently and all hands must be on deck to achieve this.”