Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Saturday stated that over 14 million Nigerian children who should be in school are presently not in school.

According to IgbereTV reports, Obasanjo made this known in Lagos at the virtual 2020 Fellowship Graduation Ceremony of the second cohort of “Teach for Nigeria Fellows”.

“Teach For Nigeria”, an NGO, graduated 161 fellows who have impacted approximately 9,660 students in 80 schools across Lagos, Ogun, and Kaduna States.

“Teach For Nigeria” focuses on developing a movement of leaders across Nigeria who are committed to putting an end to educational inequity.

Obasanjo said: “They are deprived of opportunities that will allow them to develop their abilities and become useful to themselves and their communities.

“It is evident that at this point, to transform our education system in a sustainable way, Nigerian youths must take up leadership positions.”

According to him, our youths must champion different innovative solutions at every level of the society and across different sectors.

“It is inspiring to see the work that ‘Teach For Nigeria’ is doing to equip promising future leaders with the skills and experience to drive the change that we need,” the former president said.

He added that the leaders had dedicated their time, energy and resources to inspire love for learning, improved educational outcomes, and enhanced life opportunities for children in the classrooms.

“As a result of your commitment, your pupils have succeeded at various academic and non-academic competitions.

“I recently learnt about pupils of ‘Teach For Nigeria Fellows’ who came second in the National Lafarge Competition and other scholarship opportunities.

“They also initiated actions by working with stakeholders such as parents, community members, heads of schools and other teachers,” Obasanjo said.

He, however, advised the fellows to continue to leverage their acquired skills and experiences to advocate for educational excellence in the country.
The former president urged them to be ambassadors for change, driving the movement for freedom and justice in Nigeria.

“I strongly advise that you remain resilient in your fight for educational equity, not relenting on the strides of deploying solutions to tackle the myriads of problems confronting our education system.

“Please do not let anybody tell you that you are leaders of tomorrow, you are leaders today,” Obasanjo said.

He noted that the outbreak of the raging Coronavirus pandemic had put the world at its knees as the whole world strives to develop a vaccine and successful treatments to fight the disease.

“So far, the damage in Africa has been moderate; but if we relax, the African continent can become the worst affected from the economic fallout of the crisis,” Obasanjo said.

He said that our education system was already in crisis before the pandemic hit us.

“The outbreak has exacerbated the ever-widening gulf between the learning opportunities of our most privileged children and our less privileged children.

“To close the dangerous gap as a nation, we require prompt action from well-meaning Nigerians imbued with courage, patriotism, commitment, foresight and love,” Obasanjo said.

Also, Folawe Omikunle, the Chief Executive Officer, Teach For Nigeria, said that graduating fellows had spent the past two years improving the academic outcomes of their pupils.

Omikunle said that they ignited the love for learning in these pupils, instilling self-belief, successfully galvanising parental and community support to aid pupils learning process.

“The graduating 161 fellows are joining our maiden set of 44 Alumni members, thereby bringing the number of our Alumni network to 205 members.

“Teach For Nigeria is a life-long commitment in the fight against educational inequity.

“We are positive that our Alumni will continue to work toward ensuring that one day we have a Nigeria where every child can attain an excellent education,” she said.

https://igberetvnews.com/1362205/14-million-nigerian-children-presently-school-obasanjo/

Lalasticlala

As true as this is, the monies looted by every Nigerian government including the ones Abacha is sending back, would have excellently improved their lives and shaped their future. The corruption is so massive that even the present govt claims that a certain school feeding programme is still going on, even while schools have been locked up for a while. They may even tell you that the over 14million out of school children are covered in their school feeding programme .

samincredible44:
98% of these kids are from the north,precisely the children of buhari supporters

this was the same statement that caused Goodluck Jonathan his seat as a president. His shepopotamus wife thinks shaming the North would score them political gains.

Local Yoruba Muslims will soon attack you Mr OBJ. Those guys are as useless as the P in Psychology

98% of these kids are from the north,precisely the children of buhari supporters

What are you doing about it Baba Obj... As bad and corrupt as Rochas Okorocha was nobody can deny what Rochas foundation did on basic education


.

Baba is just quoting the nomber of curentlly unemployed youth as if he employed 20million Nigerians during tenure as president, hw many industries did he build as a president? aside his otta farm that he built for his own personal interest he did absolutly nothing as a president so he should shuts up his big mouth and mind his business.

The tambuwal's effect has started.....One of the major score point of Aminu tambuwal administration in sokoto is the good education he has provided...After meeting with Obj yesterday I'm not surprised ..... Northern Nigeria should account for over 10million out of school...

Please do not let anybody tell you that you are the leaders of tomorrow, you are the leaders of today, Obasanjo said.

The bold has been used to decieve youths since time immemorial.
I can still recollect that song that goes thus:
"Parents listen to your children, we are the leaders of tomorrow.....
Try to pay our school fees & give us sound education."

samincredible44:
98% of these kids are from the north,precisely the children of buhari supporters

FACT: the south has more unemployed graduate than the north, if it is illitracy your are talking about then i will give it to the north but there are more unemploy graduate in the south than the north

E shock u