Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has claimed that immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan did not take the Boko Haram insurgency seriously in the belief that the terror group was a device by the North to bring down his government.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Obasanjo 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 retired Army General observed that Boko Haram’s insurgency may not end soon, noting that it stemmed from underdevelopment, unemployment, and youth frustration in the North East.
“Boko Haram will not be over; it started from a position of gross under development, unemployment, and youth frustration in the North East. So we must be treating the disease, not the symptom,” Obasanjo explained.
