Former President Olusegun Obasanjo claims that Nigeria’s 20 million out-of-school children are future recruits for the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Obasanjo spoke in Bauchi on Sunday at the commissioning ceremony for some of the projects overseen by the state’s governor, Bala Mohammed.
The previous president stated that the growing number of out-of-school children accounts for 10% of Nigeria’s population.
He stated that human capacity development and education are critical components in the success of any nation.
Obasanjo said:
“The 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; that is 10 percent of our population that should be in school that are not in school.”
“That is recruitment for future Boko Haram; nobody needs to tell us that. Apart from being that 10 percent of our population are not equipped to develop their innate ability and capacity to serve themselves, family, and community.
“We are also preparing them to be recruited in 10 to 15 years for whatever form of Boko Haram there will be at that time, whatever form of banditry it will be.”
The former president stated that God did not establish Africa as a place of poverty, and that its leaders had impoverished the continent.
“You can’t talk about developing human capacities when you don’t have what I call adequate health delivery service for your people,” he said.
“If you don’t want to talk about poverty alleviation, talk about wealth creation. I say to people that the world is fed up talking about poverty in Africa.
“God has not created Africa for a land of poverty. We made Africa a land of poverty, advertently or inadvertently, by our leaders in Africa, and of course, if it is a human action, putting it right must also be a human action.”