Education Neglect Fuels Nigeria’s Insecurity, Says Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has offered a sharp analysis of Nigeria’s pervasive insecurity and structural decay, identifying the country’s longstanding failure to adequately invest in the education sector as the fundamental cause. He argues that this neglect has created the conditions for the current wave of violence.

Atiku presented his argument on Saturday in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, while speaking at the 17th Annual Founder’s Day of the American University of Nigeria (AUN). His remarks positioned the crisis not just as a security problem, but as a systemic failure of human development.

The political leader did not spare recent administrations from criticism, claiming a persistent lack of commitment to schooling has severely damaged Nigeria’s potential.

“The crass disregard for education inflicted upon us by the current and successive governments since 2007 has transformed what could have been a vibrant future into a bleak landscape,” he asserted, pointing to a fifteen-year period of sustained educational deprivation.

Atiku suggested that while the visible chaos from armed groups is deeply troubling, it obscures a more dangerous, underlying threat to the nation.

He characterized this danger as the “most insidious threat,” stemming from the “far deeper neglect of education, health, and human development services.”

The former Vice President cautioned that the nation risks addressing symptoms while ignoring the root cause of its turmoil.

He warned that focusing solely on combating violence while overlooking human development sectors does not only endanger the present stability but also casts a destructive, “long shadow over the future.”

Atiku called for a decisive shift in national focus, urging both individuals and the private sector to dedicate closer attention and resources to the failing state of Nigeria’s education system.

He explicitly linked this failure to the recruitment challenges faced by criminal organizations, stressing that the rapidly growing population of idle, unengaged youths constitutes “fertile ground for criminal recruitment.”

The former Vice President lamented the waste of potential in a country naturally endowed with a large and dynamic youth population.

“Our beloved country, endowed with a youth population of enormous promise, faces staggering challenges that threaten to undermine our most precious asset—our children,” he noted with concern.

He detailed the dual nature of the education crisis, pointing out that millions of children are completely excluded from the system, remaining permanently out of school.

Among those who do enroll, he observed, many are left disillusioned and “trapped in an outdated system that fails to prepare them for the demands of an increasingly complex and competitive world.”

Atiku concluded his sobering assessment by referencing worrying national education statistics.

He lamented that Nigeria now holds the “regrettable distinction of having the highest number of out-of-school children globally,” a status he argues is an immediate, direct contributor to the country’s compounding security woes.