Obasanjo: Jonathan Thought Boko Haram Was Northern Agenda To Stop His Presidency

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan failed to act fast on the Boko Haram insurgency because he felt it was a northern agenda to stop him.

Obasanjo disclosed this while responding to questions in an interview with BBC’s Nkem Ifejika.

Explaining why it seems difficult for insurgency in Nigeria to end permanently, the ex-military head of state pointed out that the issue was not nipped in the bud to prevent what we have now.

According to him, “We did not do what we should have done when we should have done it. We left it to become a very very intractable problem.

“I went out in 2011 to Maiduguri, Borno State. I took great risk to find out what is really happening. Boko haram terrorists, 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.

“Even when Chibok girls were abducted, it took a while for the government to believe. Now if that is the situation, you can understand why the right attention was not paid to the issue of Boko Haram when it should have been paid.”

On how the sect can be stopped, Obasanjo said: “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.”