Former Minister of Education, Prof. Tunde Adeniran has said that the only way there can be a lasting solution to the issue of insurgence in the North-East, the root causes must be explored.
Prof. Adeniran during an interview with journalists in Abuja said “When you are fighting a situation, either it is weeds on your farm or some sicknesses and diseases, don’t content yourself with dealing with the symptoms, go down deep to the root, I’m a student of strategic studies, some of us have studied them, and we know that unless and until we go down to the root, the problem will not be solved, no matter the promises made, no matter the effort made, if the efforts are not made in the right direction, we will not get the appropriate result.
“What we need to do is to cry out the more, to shout, to call on our government of the day to please do the right thing by going down to the root causes of Boko Haram, once that is done we will find the solution, because we have not done that, that is why we are still having this sporadic bombings and killings.
“Every Nigerian community is a potential target that has to be factored into the planning process. That is why every inch of Nigerian soil should be regarded as a potential target for Boko Haram attack, we are at war, it has taken us a long time to appreciate this, right now I do not even believe that the degree of appreciation is high enough.”
On his assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the past two months, he said “How far one could delay depends upon the magnitude of the challenges of the problems on ground, by taking his time, by thinking through, I believe that by the time he decides to move, it is only then that we will be able to assess that the waiting is actually worth it.
“But the delay so far, I don’t see what the country is missing as far as I am concerned, by now he should have had a better over view and understanding of what the Nigeria is all about, some people are anxious that he should have appointed this or that, appointed them to be doing what, is there anything that is not being done now that would have been done by some ministers or by secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).”