Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria has reportedly predicted that out-of-school children might soon be recruited by Boko Haram if the government failed to return them to classrooms.
Obasanjo reportedly made this known, while addressing participants at the presidential youth mentorship retreat held at the Youth Development Centre, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State on Thursday.
Obasanjo noted that, “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 say that 10 years or 15 years from now, those will be where you will recruit pure Boko Haram.”
He maintained that, “So, if you deal with Boko Haram by stick today, in a few years’ time, the situation will be worse because we are talking about security, it will be worse.”
He added that, “So, if we are talking of insecurity, where should we begin? If we are talking of poverty, where should we begin? It is education.”
According to him, “Somebody asked ‘if everybody is educated, who will be a servant?’ and I said if everybody is educated, then we will get a better servant than you should have gotten from those that are not educated.”
While commenting that the unity of Nigeria is paramount, Obasanjo asserted that, “I have no regret fighting for the unity of Nigeria and if it comes up tomorrow that it should be done and I have ability to do it, I will do what I have to do.”
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