Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed concern over the growing number of out-of-school children currently put at more than 20 million in Nigeria , saying such alarming figure poses a great security risk for the nation in the future.
The former president who was speaking in Bauchi on Sunday during the the commissioning ceremony of some selected projects executed by Governor Bala Mohammed, says the huge number of out of school children in the country are only being prepared for recruitment into Boko Haram and banditry in the next 10 to 15 years.
“Let me emphasise what we want to do, human capacity building, education and human capacity building very important. 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,” Obasanjo cried out
He said that not equipping the children to develop their innate ability and capacity leaves them for Boko Haram and bandits to exploit.
“Apart from being that 10 per cent of our population are not being equipped to develop their innate ability and capacity to be able to serve themselves, their family, their community, 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, ", the former president warned
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