By Sule Aliyu Bauçhi
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday said he was pained by the high number of out-of-school children in the country.
Olusegun Obasanjo warned that if left to escalate, the development provides a fertile and mature ground for recruiting a new generation of Boko Haram insurgents.
"What we see is a cycle of illiterate parents giving birth to illiterate children who will also produce illiterate children and the cycle continues. That cycle of inter-generational illiteracy must be broken." OBJ said
The former President said this as the Federal Government disclosed that it would start an open schooling progamme in July as part of efforts to solve the problem of the out-of-school children.
OBJ was speaking during a one working visit in Bauchi where he said the youth within the age bracket of 30 constituted over 60 per cent of Nigerian population, adding that they should be regarded as leaders of today and not tomorrow.
The former President said, “When I see what youths in other countries are doing and I see the people who are in charge, most of them are young, but Nigerians, especially the youth, are not better endowed.
“Whatever I have done, I did it because I am educated and for the love I have for Nigeria. If I didn’t have education, I would not have been able to do what I have done and today, it pains me that more than 3 million of Nigerian children who should be in school are out of school.”
The former President, therefore, raised concerns on the need for all hands to be on deck to check the menace before the region goes back to the years of emergence of the dreadful Islamic militant sect that has devastated the North-East sub-region
Also speaking, the state governor senator Bala Abdukadir Muhammad while highlighting the achievements of his administration in the education sector, boasted that with different measures and proactive solutions, the number of out-of-school children has been reduced by half within the 5 years of his administration.
The Governor added that the fear was achieved through collaborative efforts with all the relevant agencies particularly, International Development Partners who are operating in the education sector of the state.
He assured that efforts have been intensified to ensure that the remaining out-of-school children were effectively mopped up and returned to school.
