Former Nigeria’s President, Olusegun Obasanjo, says the growing number of out-of-school children in the country poses a great security risk for the nation in the future.
He said 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.
The former president said this in Bauchi yesterday, at the commissioning ceremony of some selected projects executed by Governor Bala Mohammed.
He said, 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 percent 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 said.
According to him, 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 percent 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, he stated.
The ex-President urged traditional rulers to encourage community policing in their communities to reduce the spate of crimes.
Earlier, Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir told the Council of Traditional Rulers that the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo was in Bauchi to share in the joy of the good governance being provided by his administration to the people of the State.
