By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has identified Kanuri, Fulani, and Hausa ethnicities as the worst hit in the number of out-of-school children last year in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to the UN agency’s report, the North West has a total of 8,044,800 out-of-school children, the North East has 5,064,400 and the North Central has 2,115,800. The South West has 1,146,900, while the South-South has 431,300 and the South East has 240,200 out-of-school children.
Looking at how the various ethnic groups in Nigeria are affected by the rising number of out-of-school children, a UNICEF report shows that the Hausa ethnic group with a population of about 69.2 million has 8,110,400 out–of–school children, which accounts for 11.72 per cent.
The Fulani ethnic group with 25 million people has 3,305,500 out-of-school children which is about 13.2 percent, while the Kanuri ethnic group of about four million people has 982,200 out-of-school children accounting for 24.6 percent.
Also, the Yoruba ethnic group with a population of about 50 million has 855,700, which is 1.7 per cent, while the Igbo ethnic group with about 30 million people has 796,600, about 2.7 per cent out-of-school children.
Other ethnic groups like the Tiv with a population of about 5 million, have 215,900 out-of-school children, accounting for 4.3 per cent, while Ijaw ethnic group has 132,200 of about 0.9 per cent out-of-school children out of 14 million people.