Obasanjo says Boko Haram has legitimate grievances and the government needs to dialogue

FORMER President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the federal government to look into the causes behind the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria pointing out that there are legitimate grievances behind the uprising.

Since 2009, Boko Haram has launched a war of terror against Nigeria, setting off bombs across the country and recently seizing territory. Although of late, the Nigerian Army has succeeded in pushing the terrorists back, reclaiming a lot of territory in conjunction with its counterparts from Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republic, Boko Haram is still operational.

At the start of the year, Boko Haram controlled 12 local government areas across northeastern Nigeria in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States but as of now, it has been limited to two in Borno State. With army commanders confident that they will ultimately defeat the terrorists, Chief Obasanjo has urged the government to look beyond military matters and resolved the socio-economic causes behind the insurgency.

Speaking yesterday during a global education conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Chief Obasanjo conceded that some of the terrorists' demands were legitimate. Criticising the response of the current administration, Chief Obasanjo highlighted low level of education as a contributory factor.

Chief Obasanjo said: “They have legitimate grievances and we don’t need anyone to tell us that this is a problem of disparity and a problem of marginalisation. The response of the government initially was definitely not enough as when Boko Haram started showing their fangs about four years ago, the reaction should have been firm and unmistakable.

“If Boko Haram is ready to talk, we should talk but they will need to be pounded a little bit by the military and then, they would be ready to talk. When we were dealing with the carrot aspect, the stick aspect should have been firm and I hope with that, we will now go the carrot, as the carrot is those things rightly or wrongly perceived as injustice or grievances that can now be dealt with."

He added that the heat that the sect was facing from the military at the moment could force it to dialogue with the government. According to Chief Obasanjo, the false confidence of the militants to go into Chad, Cameroon, Niger and neighbouring countries has now led to a regional military coalition, which although has been reasonably effective, has not completely solved the problem.