From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the estimated 15 million out-of-school children would become Boko Haram insurgents in the next 10 to 15 years if they continue to mill around the streets aimlessly.
Obasanjo spoke yesterday in Abuja at the 2022 Murtala Muhammed Foundation Annual Lecture, entitled, ‘Beyond Boko Haram: Addressing Insurgency, Banditry and Kidnapping Across Nigeria.’
The Chairman, Board of Trustees, MMF, advised governments to tackle the disease by creating jobs and getting them educated rather than dissipating energy providing unsustained palliatives.
According to him, his voyage to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to understudy the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in 2011, revealed that their anger and actions stemmed from the lack of education, unemployment and severe poverty.
The former military head of state narrated that at that time, the group had not gained international recognition or been lured by foreign terrorist organisations like Al-Qaeda.
“The issue of banditry, armed robbery started immediately after the civil war because of the ills people could have access to weapons. And then, of course, we have not come out of it since then. It has been growing from bad to worse,” he said.
“In the year 2011 when Boko Haram was just showing its ugly head, I went to Maiduguri to try and find out a little bit more about Boko Haram and insurgency.
“I was trying to find out their objectives and they said they were interested in Sharia. But they also complained that their followers had no jobs.
“And in their efforts to do something legitimate to help their followers, the government started chasing and gunning them down.
“What I feared at that time seem to have been happening because in 2011 when I was looking at the issue of Boko Haram it had not much of external connection.
“In fact, the intermediary who was helping me to reach out to them felt maybe 10 to 11 percentage external connection was what they had at that time.
“And that external connection would be Nigerians who have some resources abroad.
“The population of Nigeria today stands in over 215 million. And 15 million children who should be in school are not in school.
“It does not matter how we deal with Boko Haram, bandits, kidnapping and adoption today, either by stick or carrot, those 15 million children that should be in school that are not in school are the potential Boko Haram of 15 years from now.
“I believe that it is not too late to start giving them education. We can say to ourselves that we do not want Boko Haram as of now in 2035.
“And if we do not do anything about the 15 million children that should be in school that are not in school, then we are already nurturing the Boko Haram of tomorrow.”
Harping on the country’s leadership structure, he noted that younger people should be at the helm of affairs, while his likes, should sit back and provide counselling on nation-building.
“You also talked about intergenerational collaboration. Kayode Fayemi, you talked about you being in secondary school when Murtala-Obasanjo’s are in government.
“If people of Murtala-Obasanjo’s age still have to compete with you as governor then something is wrong.
“We should be able to give it to you and you should be able to give it to those who are coming after you so that we make sure that the knowledge and experience we have we are passing it down, because of you who are coming behind not to start competing with you and to make Nigeria better than you found it,” he said.
The keynote speaker, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, on his part, advocated that the military should be motivated with modern gadgets, so as to put an end to Boko Haram activities.
Fayemi, who doubles as the Chairman, Nigerian Governors’ Forum, said, “If an all-encompassing social compact has become an urgent imperative in our quest to look beyond Boko Haram towards an all-round national rebirth, it must go without saying that we have to pay special attention to employment creation on a mass scale so that our bid for socio-economic progress can stand a chance of being achieved.
“I am here particularly concerned as you about the role which employment can play in helping the burgeoning army of young Nigerians to build character, enhance personal dignity, eschew crime, lead innovation, and sustain hope for a better future whilst contributing productively to the development of the nation.
“For the government, the private sector, and non-governmental associations, the shared responsibility to tame unemployment must be addressed as a prime order of business in the overall effort to rebuild a basis for citizenship through a revamped social compact.
“It is a settled matter among students of security studies that human security provides a better all-encompassing framework for assessing the state of health of a nation.
“To build a new social compact anchored on it assumes that in fulfilling its side of the bargain, the state will also be able to secure the citizenry with credibility.
This requires a constant honing of the capability of the security services to prevent, deter, and overcome threats to the territorial integrity of the country and the lives and property of citizens.
“In this connection, ongoing efforts to equip, train, and motivate the armed forces and other agencies of national security to enhance their readiness to deal with conventional and unconventional threats will need to be sustained as an important piece of the goal of national rebirth.
“Although the military is gearing up to its responsibilities in this regard, it is clear that more needs to be done,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer of Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF), Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode, stated that the organisation “serves as an advocate and catalyst for empowerment programmes through high-impact interventions on social issues, technology, leadership and governance.”