Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday told Nigerians to expect change in the forthcoming general elections. Obasanjo, while fielding questions from reporters after speaking at the two-day Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) 2015 in Dubai on ‘growing problem of attacks on schools,’ said the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria would bring about a change.
He also knocked President Goodluck Jonathan for the poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency. According to him, the good thing about democracy is that it brings change, such as Nigerians will witness in the forthcoming general elections. He said: “The good thing about democracy which we are trying to practice in Nigeria is that the people have a choice; people have a choice of making the incumbent to bring about a change; a change of policy, change of direction or in the alternative, the people bring about a change; change of regime, change of personality.
And I believe that our election, when it comes less than two weeks from now, will bring about a change; either change of policy or change of direction or change of regime or change of personality. “I pray and I hope that that we will have a free, fair, uninterrupted, transparent, credible election. What is important in any election is to ensure that nobody is disenfranchised and those who want to vote are able to vote freely and uninterrupted. And the result is not interfered with in any way.
“I will decide who I will vote for when the time comes for me to vote. When the time comes for me to endorse anybody, I will say who I endorse. But people are putting words into my mouth and for now I will split it out.” Obasanjo also denied tearing his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) membership card.
“I didn’t tear my PDP membership card; somebody else tore it because I said to him, ‘here is the card, do whatever you like with it. If you like, keep it; if you like tear it, if you like burn it. Here it is because they say it is giving them concern and they don’t know what is happening.’ I do that to prove to them what is happening.
At the moment, I do not possess the card of any political party,” he said. Obasanjo, in his address, gave an insight into why the Boko Haram insurgency worsened under the Jonathan administration. He accused the president of not paying much attention to the insurgency until it was too late.
He said the activities of the sect escalated under the Jonathan administration due to politicisation of Boko Haram. “When Boko Haram started about four years ago, the present government saw it as a manifestation of the certain areas of the country that does not support the government, rather than seeing it as menace.
So, it took about three years before government really came to the realisation that Boko Haram is more than an antigovernment group. “When the news of the abduction of the (Chibok) girls came to the president the morning after the night that it was done, the president’s reaction was that it cannot be true.
And if it cannot be true, then you don’t have to do anything about it. And, for 18 days, the president didn’t even have any meaningful discussion with the governor of Borno State,which he ought to have done immediately. If immediate action had been taken, maybe those girls may have been rescued very early.
“Now, the Boko Haram has festered like a bad sore and it is no longer in evident in the north-eastern part of Nigeria, it has gone beyond that to other countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic and now it has become a regional issue and we have to deal with it regionally and that is the combined military action that has been taken now.
But we must not forget the underline cause, which is development,” he said. He identified corruption, incompetence and lack of development as the root cause of the insurgency and Boko Haram menace in the North-East. He described the various terror attacks on some parts of the world, especially attacks on schools, as a symptom of a disease that needs to be treated urgently.
He said an attempt to tackle insurgency without providing solutions to the basic problems that gave birth to terror would amount to “treating a headache that emanates from high blood pressure.” He added that tackling the insurgency should begin with local communities before looking for national or international solutions.
According to him, it has taken Nigeria a few years to really realise the severity of the threat posed by Boko Haram, which has now become a regional issue that must be urgently tackled. He said: “About threeand- a-half years ago, I wanted to know what the Boko Haram is all about; who are they and what are their objectives?
The man who conducted the meeting by proxy, because I cannot see them, told me that the leader of Boko Haram, Mohammad Yusuf, who was killed in cold blood by the police, has 27 children and part of the problem is how to give them good western education. So, they are not averse to education.
“One of the things that Mohammad Yusuf did when he was alive was that he asked his followers to bring out their certificates. Some have first degree; first class, second class; some have Master’s degrees. He asked them: ‘with your certificate, where is your job?’ They told him they had no job.
He told them; ‘of what use is your certificate? Tear it.’ Some tore their certificates, some didn’t. That is actually where their name came from; Western education is good for nothing.” On how to solve the Boko Haram menace in Nigeria, the former president said: “In the short term, we have to offer two things; the stick and the carrot.
The stick will be the military and the carrot would be where we have failed in the area of development, particularly education and employment, we have to address them. I believe that in the long run, the gap in the area of development and the real and perceived injustice must be removed. But in the short, we have to deal with it with stick and carrot approach.”
Obasanjo blamed poor leadership for insecurity problems and terror attacks in some parts of the world, especially in Nigeria. “Leadership matters in virtually all human institutions and organisations. So, any lapses or laxity in any human community, particularly in our country (Nigeria) is leadership problem.
I will say to a large extent, it is leadership problem. “I have always maintained that political leaders must, first of all, give good governance in all its ramifications and that is very important. You cannot have corruption and expect people to feel happy. You cannot have corruption and good governance as strange fellows; they don’t live together.
“You have to be honest with the people. Tell them the truth. You cannot be lying to the people and expect that will give people satisfaction. For me, I believe it is good governance in all its ramifications. Good governance which comes from good leadership,” he added.
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