Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the approximately 14 million drop-outs in Nigeria may become Boko Haram recruits over the next ten years.
This was said at a presidential youth mentoring retreat conducted at the Youth Development Centre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during which he also criticised the rise in out-of-school children in the country.
With over 14 million out-of-school youths roaming the Nigerian streets, the former president said it doesn’t take an oracle to forecast that they would turn into outlaws in the future and emphasised that education is critical to preventing this.
“A situation today where we have 14 million children that should be in school that are not in school; does anybody need to be an oracle to tell that 10 years or 15 years from now, those will be where you will recruit pure Boko Haram.
“So, if you deal with Boko Haram by stick today; in few years’ time the situation will be worse because we are talking about security, it will be worse. So, if we are talking of insecurity, where should we begin? If we are talking of poverty where should we begin? It is education,” he said.
