Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed what the Boko Haram terrorists told him during a meeting he had with them in 2011. Obasanjo who spoke on Monday at the 2022 Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF) annual lecture said he held a private meeting with the Boko Haram group in Maiduguri, Borno State in 2011.
According to him, the group lamented frequent attacks from government military forces and wanted legitimate jobs for their members while being allowed to practice Sharia. He said at that time, the terrorists didn’t have much exposure to the outside world neither did they have connections to other international terrorist organizations.
Chief Obasanjo however lamented that as things stand now, a lot has changed, and with Nigeria having 15 million out-of-school children, there may not be ready materials to fight the now exposed, sophisticated and attacking Boko Haram terrorists, except urgent action is taken to solve the challenge.
Speaking virtually on the topic “Beyond Boko Haram: Addressing Insurgency, Banditry and Kidnapping across Nigeria,” the former head of state, who is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Muritala Mohammed Foundation, said it’s not too late to avoid future problems by getting the children back in schools. “I believe it is not too late to start and say to ourselves ‘we do not want the Boko Haram of 2030 or 2035″, he was quoted as saying.
“But if we don’t do anything about those 15 million out-of-school children, we are already in more trouble with Boko Haram of the future. “We, the society, must be willing to give them education and employment or they extract it from the society unwillingly,” Obasanjo added.
Recalling his encounter with the Boko Haram group back in 2011, Obasanjo said: “What I feared at that time seems to have been happening because in 2011, Boko Haram had not much of external connection. “My fear was: could we be able to get them away from Al-Qaeda and other international terror organizations? We seem not to have been able to do that. “Today, Boko Haram and those who have come to work with them are making the matter much worse than it was 11 years ago,” he asserted.