Leveraging its South-South and Southwest state directorates, the National Orientation Agency is implementing initiatives to uplift, protect, and educate the most vulnerable demographic in the nation’s civic landscape.
In the South-South and South-West, where cultural expectations often silence girls or hold them back, NOA’s state directorates are implementing programmes to rip up barriers against the girl-child.
The campaigns go beyond the symbolic, as are implemented through boots-on-the-ground approach that is woven into schoolyards, community halls, markets, and the airwaves in a manner designed to instill values, provide access to services, and give the girl-child a voice.
A campaign across schools
In Akwa Ibom, Osun, and Ogun states, the NOA’s renewed push since late 2023 has focused heavily on schools. Around the states, the agency has introduced the Citizens’ Brigades, student-led clubs that meet weekly to discuss civic responsibility, national identity and gender equality.
In Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the programme took off at Four Towns Secondary School and Adiahaobong Secondary School. Girls in the two schools do not just wear uniforms, but lead brigades that organise debates, interpret civic values through drama, and challenge the notion that leadership belongs only to boys.
A similar transformation is happening in Osogbo, Osun State, where NOA took its girl-focused interventions into schools after a well-attended values festival held at Freedom Park in October 2023. The focus was clear: teach discipline, respect, and resilience, but root it in identity and inclusion.
In Ogun, the NOA tapped into the National Youth Service Corps, training female corps members as “Integrity Ambassadors” in Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode, and Sango-Ota. These ambassadors go into classrooms and community halls as relatable mentors, as they are young, educated women preaching the importance of girls staying in school, rejecting child marriage and owning their voices.
Town Halls, Markets
For many girls in Cross River State, their first taste of empowerment came not in a classroom, but in the bustling chaos of the market. Beginning with the global 16 Days of Activism campaign in November 2023, NOA Cross River held a series of open-air town halls in Calabar’s major commercial hubs of Wat Market, Goldie Street, and motor parks along Marian Road.
These gatherings were frank and deeply communal. Women, girls, and traders spoke openly about early marriage, sexual violence and family expectations. Traditional leaders and faith-based groups lent their voices in support, urging fathers to let their daughters learn, not wed.
Voices on Radio
NOA also made clever use of the radio. Weekly Pidgin and Efik-language segments like “Integrity Hour” aired on Hit FM 95.9, featuring survivor stories and legal guidance for listeners, especially young girls navigating societal pressure. Girls, who had never seen a microphone suddenly found their stories mattered.
In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the message is being brought to life through street theatre and symposia. As early as December 2023, female students were gathering at school-organised forums to hear about their rights against sexual harassment, forced withdrawal from school and for self-determination.
In one memorable performance staged at the Oil Mill Market, a teenage girl character stands before her village elders, insisting that she will not marry a man twice her age. The crowd cheered. For many young girls watching, it wasn’t just entertainment; it was permission.
Beyond workshops and theatre, the NOA is working to ensure that the girl-child is not just empowered in spirit, but legally visible in the system. This began in earnest with nationwide birth registration drives launched in partnership with the National Population Commission and UNICEF.
In September 2024, for example, a massive drive in Ibadan mobilised parents to register their children under five. In many cases, it was the first time girls received official recognition through National Identification Numbers (NINs) that give access to education, healthcare, and legal protection.
Ogun State followed suit in October, launching a National Identity Project that promotes civic inclusion and aims to ensure no girl is invisible on government records. According to local NOA officials, these efforts were critical to preventing child trafficking, early marriage and educational exclusion.
Realising that to reach girls, one must speak their language, whether through school debates, radio jingles or digital screens, the NOA in 2024, began piloting a civic values cartoon series in Lagos and Ibadan schools. The characters, relatable Nigerian girls and boys, navigate ethical dilemmas in family, school and society. In these colourful worlds, girls are heroes, problem-solvers, and change-makers.
In Uyo, girl-students participated in the “World Values Day Jigsaw Puzzle Contest.” It was not just about winning; it was about assembling Nigeria’s civic identity piece by piece and seeing oneself in the final picture.
While hard data on impact is still emerging, the anecdotal evidence is promising. Since October 2023, thousands of girls in the South-South and South-West have taken part in NOA-led events, brigades, radio discussions, and identity drives. The Citizens’ Brigade programme has many girl members.
Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the NOA Director-General, explained that the girl-child strategy is part of a broader mission to institutionalise the National Value Charter and ensure that no child, regardless of gender or geography, is left out of the national imagination.
“In every village and city where we do this work, we see the same thing. When you give a girl knowledge, voice, and visibility, she transforms not just her life, but her community,” he said.
From a schoolyard in Uyo to a radio booth in Calabar, from a jigsaw puzzle contest in Ibadan to a birth registration table in Abeokuta, the Nigerian girl-child is asking questions, learning her rights, writing her story, with the tools provided by the NOA.
