Senator Shuaib Salisu, representing Ogun Central senatorial district, has urged traditional rulers to become education advocates to tackle the growing menace of out-of-school children in Ogun State.

Speaking on Monday at a capacity-building workshop held at Ake Palace, Abeokuta, Salisu, who chairs the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, emphasized that as custodians of culture, traditional rulers must prioritize education as the cornerstone for sustainable development and the only way to fight poverty.

The workshop, themed "Improving Secondary School Enrollment through Community Engagement," was organized in collaboration with the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) and Ampersand Development Partners.

Lamenting the declining enrollment trend, Salisu stated, "If you look at it critically now, you will notice that the quest for education is waning. Enrollment trend is going down; in 10 years, 20 years time, are we going to be able to say as Ogun State or as Ogun Central that we are still in a prominent position as we used to be?"

The senator proposed addressing the problem at its root by "employing our traditional rulers to serve as education advancement champions," noting that while educated youth may face employment challenges now, "when the jobs become available, they are not going to give them to people who are not educated."

Expressing distress over reports of cybercrime in his district, Salisu called for a return to traditional values: "When I was growing up in this town, the Omoluabi ethos was strong; poems and poetry extol the virtues of character, the virtues of hard work, but what you notice is that our values have also been degraded."

The Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, affirmed that traditional rulers are closest to the grassroots and that people would readily follow their guidance. "Without education, everything else that you have is going to fade totally. It's not fake, it's the genuine way to development," he stated.

Ogun State's Commissioner for Education, Abayomi Arigbabu, attributed the out-of-school children phenomenon largely to child labor, poverty, and early marriage, emphasizing that government alone cannot combat this challenge.

Speaking on behalf of all local government chairmen in Ogun Central senatorial district, Folasade Adeyemo, chairman of Odeda Local Government, described the workshop as a demonstration of grassroots development and pledged continued collaboration with traditional rulers and the senator.