Over four million school-age children of nomads have no access to education in Nigeria, Professor Rashid Aderinoye, Secretary, National Commission for Nomadic Education, yesterday revealed.

“The incessant conflicts in Nasarawa, Taraba and Benue states involving the Fulani herdsmen and people of the states is due to a high level of ignorance and illiteracy among the pastoralists,” Aderinoye said, while fielding questions from journalists at the weekend.

He spoke after a meeting with the Minister of National Planning and Deputy Chairman of National Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, in Abuja describing the development as a “time bomb.”

“There is high level of ignorance and illiteracy among the nomads and some of these could be sign of protest that they need attention, but are not able to do it in a constructive way.

“The population of the nomads, including pastoralists, migrant fishermen and migrant farmers is about 17 million, with majority of the population unable to read and write.”

He said of about 4 million school-age children of nomads that were supposed to be in school, only about 500,000 of them were in schools across the country.

Aderinoye said the advocacy visit to the Minister of National Planning Commission was to see how to build strong partnership as part the ongoing effort to reposition nomadic education in Nigeria.