Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has said that Boko Haram has grievances that no one is attending to because of the development situation in their area.
Obasanjo who spoke to South African TV Channel, eNCA’s Raphael Ambasu in Kenya last week when he launched his memoir, My Watch said “I decided to find out facts on my own. After the Boko Haram attacked the UN house in Abuja, I thought it was getting too far, I wanted to know if there is an organization, and if there is an organization, what is its objective? Are they organized? Do they have leaders? What are their grievances? Are they ready to talk and all that, which I took up on my own.
“I spoke to the president and said “look can I do this on my own?” he said “look you can go and do it” and I thank him and I went. In fact he said he will give me a plane to go around. I said “look I don’t want a plane to go around because if I take a government plane to go around, I become a government agent and that would be suspect. No I don’t want the government to give it, so I did it on my own. The find, Yes, there is an organization, they have leaders, they have objectives, Sharia is their objective and Sharia law is not a problem, it is part of our constitution; they have grievances which nobody seems to be attending to, the development situation in their area.
“You see how they came about Boko Haram, that’s not the name they give themselves but their leader before he was killed in cold blood by the police. Mohammed Yusuf called in graduates that were with him and said “look bring your certificates, one who has first class, one who has second class, upper second class, lower and all that and one who has masters, so okay with your certificates can you use them to feed yourself? if you cannot use it to feed yourself, of what use is it?” So that’s where they got that appellation Boko Haram.
“Do they want to talk? At that time they wanted to talk, they even said they will talk not in Africa and I said to their proxy but look this is an African problem, it will be solved on African soil. Do they have leaders? yes they have leaders. So all things that I found out are reported faithfully to the authority.”
Meanwhile the Defence Headquarters has described Obasanjo as a shame to the military.
The Defence Headquarters made the comment in a statement posted on its Facebook page while reacting to a statement credited to the former President that the General Elections were postponed to enable President Goodluck Jonathan use the Service Chiefs for tenure extension.
The statement read “The Defence Headquarters has noted the remarks of a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as reported in the media stating his views on perceived state of the armed forces and the roles being allegedly played by the military in the nation’s political process in recent times…
“It is however noteworthy that most of his utterances lately indicate an attitude of playing to the gallery or indulging in politicisation of serious national security or military affairs. For instance, the comments credited to Chief Obasanjo alleging that the postponement of the General Elections was to enable President Jonathan to use the Service Chiefs to plot a tenure extension is to say the least, very surprising.
“It is surprising indeed, considering the fact that the retired General chose to ignore the clarification and emphatic assurances of non-partisanship of the military as declared in a DHQ statement on the position of the Armed Forces in the ongoing political activities. His motive as usual remains unknown but it is certainly less than noble or well intentioned. We dare say again that Chief Obasanjo’s assertions are false.
“Much as the military desires to respect the old General and his views, it has become necessary to point out that his conduct and unguarded utterances of late have fallen short of the standard of discipline expected of an individual who has had the privilege of service in the military and risen to the status of a General.
“The behaviour of retired General (Chief) Obasanjo has been so unbecoming and continues to constitute a serious embarrassment to the military before all who have reasonably and rightly adjudged the essence of military background in terms of the high value and standard it tends to contribute to statesmanship.
“We feel constrained to remind the old General that the world has moved beyond that parochial and self-adulating reasoning and mindset which he seems stuck to. Indeed, he needs to be told that by virtue of their better training, exposure, education, assessment and environment, the military personnel of today are already far beyond his level in their appreciation of democracy and its indispensability for the stable and prosperous society which Nigerians cherish.”