A former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in an interview with BBC in Lagos on Monday, said the reason ex-President Goodluck Jonathan did not fight the Boko Haram insurgents early enough is that the latter did not believe it was a serious issue.
Obasanjo said he brought the grievances of the sect to the immediate past president in 2011, but he did not take the issue seriously.
“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,” Obasanjo said.
“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 former president also said the insurgency would not end because it stemmed from youth frustration in the north-east.
“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,” he said.
Boko Haram got so power under Jonathan administration that it held a number of territories in the north-east, and repeatedly attacked the Federal Capital Territory.
