Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has expressed concerns on the rising number of out-of-school children in the country as it poses security risk for the nation. Obasanjo state that the over 20 million out of school children in Nigeria are only being prepared for recruitment into Boko Haram and banditry in the next 10 to 15 years. He emphasized on the development of education and human capacity building. The former president said this in Bauchi State on Sunday at the commissioning ceremony of some selected projects executed by Governor Bala Mohammed.
Obasanjo said, “World Bank says we have over 20 million children who should be in school that are not in school for a population of about 230 million.”
“So, that is 10 per cent of our population that should be in school that are not in school. Governor, your royal highnesses, brothers and sisters, that is recruitment for future Boko Haram, nobody needs to tell us that”.
“We are also preparing them to be recruited in 10 to 15 years’ time for whatever form of Boko Haram it will be that time, whatever form of banditry it will be.”
He said that not equipping the children to develop their innate ability and capacity leaves them for negative influence in the future.