Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, says Nigeria must embark on aggressive and swift implementation of policies and development plans that will hasten the total eradication of illiteracy in couple of decades.
He warned the refusal to prioritise education for all citizens portends danger for the country.
Obasanjo opined that Nigeria will produce more drug abusers, terrorists, bandits, and other social misfits if the disturbing number of out-of-school children is not addressed.
Obasanjo, lamenting that the country has over 20 million out-of-school children, asserted that the children if not educated, empowered, or given necessary skills, would become nuisance in the society.
The former president assertions are contained in a statement by his special assistant on media, Kehinde Akinyemi on Sunday.
He explained that to prevent such, a 25-year socio-economic development agenda is needed to prioritize education, and technology among others.
According to him, the development agenda will make it compulsory for be educated up to secondary school level.
” A 25-year socio-economic development agenda that will be generally agreed to, by the nation of all political parties and passed into law by the National Assembly with State Assembly aspects also passed into law by the State Houses of Assembly. We take up the implementation on a five-year basis. In reality, that plan will have the effect of almost a constitution. The first priority in the implementation will be education for all.
“ There should be no Nigerian without being in school compulsorily for eleven years – secondary education level.
“ Five years must be set out to ensure that every Nigerian child that is not in school is in school and no one is left out of popular education. Adult education should be embarked upon to give every Nigerian basic education equivalent to six years of formal education.
“ We should give ourselves ten years to rid Nigeria of illiteracy. No matter what we do, if we do not find a way of educating, giving skills, and empowerment, over 20 million Nigerian children that are out of school today will end up being rich recruitment centers for drug addicts, Boko Haram, bandits, and other social misfits”
He also urged the Federal Government to provide a conducive environment where businesses can thrive.
“ The second should be food and nutrition security through agribusiness. The third should be energy for all. The fourth should be industrialization and manufacturing. And the fifth should be science, technology, innovation, and Artificial Intelligence, AI.
“ In all these, the government should provide a conducive environment for the private sector to operate and thrive. And where the government will be involved at all, other than as policymaker and enabler, it should be based on private-public partnership with government as a junior partner,” the statement added.