17th June, 2023
Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that the nation’s 20 million out-of-school children are the foundation for future Boko Haram.
The former president spoke at the launch of a book titled, ‘Pillars of Statecraft: Nation-building in a changing world’ authored by his daughter, Dr Kofo Obasanjo-Blackshire, at an event in Lagos on Friday.
Obasanjo said lamented that the nation currently have over 20 million out-of-school children.
He charged Nigerians to google how many countries in the world had less than 20m, asking: “That doesn’t worry us? Are you thinking there will be no Boko Haram tomorrow?
“Those are the foundations of your Boko Haram tomorrow. That should be our concern. We should not say it is externally induced.
“Is poverty also externally induced? Poverty is the conscious, unconscious choice of our leaders. If we say no; it would be no. If we say yes; it would be yes.”
The Punch also quoted Obasanjo as saying that during the early days of Boko Haram, when the man who started the movement was said to have been killed, he said he wanted to meet with the members of the group to talk to them and know what they wanted.
The former president said he met with their representatives and found out that they needed nothing but a better life for themselves, adding “Can we blame them for wanting a better life for themselves?
“They said they believed in Sharia Law. I told them that Sharia was not a problem in Nigeria. It is part of our constitution.”
Obasanjo said that “Do we blame them if after four years, they have no jobs? Are they not entitled to a livelihood? This boils down to one of the P’s of nation-building – politics – which talks about governance and leadership.
“If that (leadership) is not properly taken care of, every other thing will go haywire. We must ask, ‘What do we do with our people? How do we raise and value them? How do we value them?”