Nigeria’s 20m out-of-school children are potential Boko Haram recruits — Obasanjo warns
By Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that the disturbing number of children out of the classroom is a potential recruitment for future Boko Haram that may worsen the security of the country.
Obasanjo said this on Sunday when he opened two roads which were executed by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State. Citing the World Bank data, he said that 20 million out-of-school children is 10 percent of Nigeria’s population.
According to him, “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.
“Apart from being the 10 percent of our population that are not being equipped to develop their innate capacity to be able to serve themselves, their families, their communities, we are also preparing them to be recruited in ten, twelve, fifteen years to come for whatever form of Boko Haram it will be at that time.
“Whatever form of banditry it will be at that time, it will not be kidnappers in the usual sense of it. They may just be coming home and snatchers of people from their homes. Think about it,” he said.
Obasanjo commissioned the dualised 17km Bauchi town to Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport and the dualised 7km Awala to Maiduguri roads constructed by Bala Mohammed.
Also, the ex-President while launching the distribution of hearing aids for 2,000 residents of Bauchi on Sunday urged Nigerians to always prioritise medical checkup, saying that he was 25 percent deaf without knowing it until he attended a meeting abroad and repeatedly struggled to hear the conversation around him.
Obasanjo while speaking, said that many people suffer deafness unknowingly, until medical check ups reveal their hearing capacity.
He narrated how he was abroad and couldn’t hear clearly while someone was talking to him and insisted nothing was wrong with his ears when the man asked for his permission to check on his ears.
Shockingly to him, after the result came out, it was revealed that he was 25 percent deaf.
“After my result came out, I had to ask the man to also check on my Chief Security Officer then but shockingly enough, he was more deaf than I was,” he said.
He said that his experience informed the beginning of his Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation where thousands of Nigerians had benefited from its ear treatments and provision of hearing aids.
He also explained that he would be flagging off the distribution of hearing aids to over 10,000 indigent people in the Northeast, starting from Bauchi State where 2,000 people would benefit.
Obasanjo, who acknowledged that the security situation in the country has gotten worse over the years, said all hands must be on the deck to tackle the security threats headlong.
