Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, blamed president Goodluck
Jonathan for allowing the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, to fester and grow
into a monster that is out of control by his failure to act on a report
submitted to the government.
The former president was speaking at a lecture delivered by Professor
Bolaji Akinyemi in celebration of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s
40th anniversary as founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri in
Delta State. Obasanjo also tasked Nigerians to choose between a strong
leader who might adopt unusual approach to tackle a problem or a weak
leader who will leave the problem to fester.
While responding to a question from a pastor from Borno State on how
he could forge any form of unity with those who are perpetuating
violence in the northern part of the country, Obasanjo went
philosophical, saying: “Boko Haram is an ill wind that blows nobody no
good.”
The former president also narrated his experience when he visited the
hot-bed of Boko Haram, Borno, on a fact-finding mission and blamed the
government’s inability to act on his findings as reason why the problem
grew to “become something else.”
“Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it
unattended to. On two occasions I had to attend to the problem I faced
at that time. I sent soldiers to a place and 19 of them were killed. If I
had allowed that to continue, I will not have authority to send
security whether police, soldier and any force any where again. So, I
had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular
problem,” he said.
Obasanjo was however quick to admit that not all problems might
require a tough stance as according to him, “if you say you don’t want a
strong leader who can have all characteristics of leaders including God
fearing, then have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”
Theformer president was also quick to dispel insinuations that he
single-handedly foisted president Jonathan on Nigerians saying that he
didn’t give all the votes that brought him to power. But he did give a
remedy when he said, “the beauty of democracy is that power rests in the
people, and every elected person would seek your votes to come back; if
you don’t want him, he won’t come back.”
And like he has been advocating over the last couple of days, the
erstwhile PDP BOT Chairman charged Nigerians to stand up and take their
destinies in their own hands, reminding them of a Yoruba adage, “if you
say it the way it is, you will die; if you don’t say anything at all,
you will die, why don’t you say it and die?”