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Unfortunate that Jonathan didn’t believe Boko Haram was a serious issue- Obasanjo

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Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that former president Goodluck Jonathan did not take the insurgency serious because he believed that the group was being used by some Northern interests to get him out of power.

Obasanjo observed that Nigeria needed to attack the root of the Boko Haram insurgency instead of just its symptoms if it would successfully defeat it.

He made these comments while speaking in an interview with the BBC in Lagos.

Obansanjo disclosed that following his visit to Maiduguri in 2011 where he gathered information about the sect’s grievances, he took the issues to Jonathan expecting him to address them.

Read also: Soyinka disagrees with Obasanjo on restructuring

He said, “I went out in 2011 to Maiduguri. I took great risk to find out what is really happening about Boko Haram, do they have grievances, if they have grievances, what are their grievances and I brought all that to Jonathan.

“Jonathan didn’t believe that Boko Haram was a serious issue. He thought that it was a device by the North to prevent him from continuing as president of Nigeria which was rather unfortunate.”

The former president also observed that the insurgency may not end soon, noting that it arose from under-development, unemployment and youth frustration in the north-east of the country.

“Boko Haram will not be over; it started from a position of gross under-development, unemployment, youth frustration in the north-east. So we must be treating the disease not the symptom,” Obasanjo said.

 

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