20m out-of-school children recruitment pool for Boko Haram – Obasanjo

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday said the growing number of out-of-school children in the country poses a great security risk for the nation in the future.

According to the elder statesman, 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.

Obasanjo made the disclosure in Bauchi at the commissioning ceremony of some selected projects executed by Governor Bala Mohammed.

“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 said.

World Bank says we have over 20 million out-of-school children. That is 10% of our population… that is recruitment for future Boko Haram or whatever form of banditry it will be.

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.”

Earlier, the governor said that the roads were part of the larger transformative vision of his administration.

He said: “As of today, we have undertaken the construction of over 116 roads, totalling 1,482.25-kilometres across the state.
“Out of these, 79 have been completed and are ready for inauguration.”

Mr Obasanjo also launched the distribution of 10,000 hearing aids to indigent people from the Northeast in Bauchi facilitated by the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation, in partnership with Starkey Hearing Foundation.

With NAN report