Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday, has said that the Boko Haram terrorists would renew their recruit from the over 14 million out-of-school children in the country.
Obasanjo also bemoaned increasing number of the out-of-school children in Nigeria, describing them as potential Boko Haram recruits.
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The former President said this while addressing participants at the Presidential Youth Mentorship Retreat held at Youth Development Centre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Obasanjo also said that about 14 million children roaming Nigerian streets, no one needed an oracle to know that those children would turn to Boko Haram recruits in the next 10 years.
Obasanjo said the rate of the dropouts would expand insecurity in Nigeria.
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Said he, “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 worst because we are talking about security, it will be worst. So, if we are talking of insecurity, where should we begin? If we are talking of poverty where should we begin? It is education.
” Somebody said 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.”
The former president maintained that the unity of Nigeria is paramount, stressing that he would fight for the unity of Nigeria throughout his life.
The former Nigerian leader said that his success while in power was because he was at the ehlm of affairs in Nigeria, but he probably might not have succeeded if he had been head of the Yoruba nation.
“Your brother from South East is right, I believed that every Nigerian is more respected in the comity of nations if Nigeria remains.
“Don’t let us deceive ourselves, will people still respect us because of our population, 200 million people, you cannot just waste them , even when I go out, people will say you Nigerians are not at the table and that is true, we are not at the table when we should be at the table.
The former president also used the occasion to reiterate that he never regretted fighting for the unity of the country during the civil war.
