Tackling Boko Haram: Obasanjo, Jonathan, stakeholders acknowledge failures, call for new approach
It was an expression of pains and failures by past Nigerian Leaders and stakeholders regarding the tackling of insurgency as they converged on Abuja this Friday (3/10/25) at the launch of the book, “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum,’’ authored by a former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Lucky Irabor.
Addressing the audience, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, who chaired the event pointed out Nigerians must begin to ask the necessary questions to be able to deal with the monster known as Boko Haram.
According to Obasanjo who lamented the lingering insurgency in the country, “Boko Haram is now virtually becoming part of our life. Should we accept that? If we should not accept it, what should we do?
“I think we have to ask ourselves the necessary questions to be able to deal with this thing that is now becoming a monster within our country,” the former president noted.
Baring his mind, another former President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan made it clear that the abduction of the Chibok girls will remain an indelible scar on his legacy.
Dr Jonathan praised Irabor’s service, noting that the retired officer was “a soldier who stood for truth and never played politics with security.”
Dr Jonathan while reflecting on his presidency, admitted that the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, would haunt him forever.
“The title of this book is quite interesting. One of the major scars on my government is the Chibok Girls.
“As Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it. It is a scar I will die with.
“I battled Boko Haram for five years as President….. “I thought Buhari would wipe them out quickly, but they remain,” the former president painfully voiced out.
He therefore suggested that the country must approach Boko Haram differently by applying the carrot and stick method.
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, in his speech, called on Nigerians to unite in order to defeat insurgency and insecurity.
General Musa stressed that military action alone cannot resolve the Boko Haram crisis, urging Nigerians to embrace peace and nationhood.
“As long as we don’t love ourselves as Nigerians, and we don’t look at ourselves as our brother’s keepers, this will continue. If we want this to end, we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters. It is not magic; it must be deliberate,” he pointed.
He commended former CDS, Lucky Irabor, for his discipline and enduring contributions.
In their contributions, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Rev. Matthew Kukah, charged Nigerians to unite, irrespective of religious backgrounds, to make the nation better.
The Sultan who enjoined Nigerians to work as one big family with different backgrounds to forge ahead, however dismissed the perception that Islam is aimed at capturing power.
On his part, Bishop Kukah called for mutual respect as an ingredient of nation-building, arguing that extremism poses a threat to the unity of any nation.
“The Egyptians dealt with Islamism when it reared its ugly head, and the people of Algeria did so in 1993. There are many Boko Haram sympathisers who are not immediately visible to us, but we know that people with fat bank accounts are funding them,” the Catholic Bishop noted.