Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has shared how ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo quickly ended the Boko Haram insurgency when it first emerged in 2002. He recently revealed that OBJ’s quick response was down to decisive leadership and strong political will, unlike the leadership we have today.
Speaking in Abuja during a visit by stakeholders from Kogi East Senatorial District, led by former Kogi Deputy Governor Simon Achuba, Atiku said that Obasanjo simply called the Service Chiefs and gave them a deadline to end the insurgency in Yobe state, else they would lose their jobs.
According to Atiku, the decisive and assertive plan worked wonders because that was the last time Obasanjo’s administration heard about Boko Haram until they left office years later, when their tenure expired.
“You remember when the Boko Haram started in Yobe? It was actually in 2002. We were in office. The president sent for me. ‘VP, what do we do about this?’ Then I said, ‘Mr President, let’s call the Service Chiefs and give them a deadline. If they can’t put it down, then they should put down their uniform and go away. We will get some other people’.
And he called the Service Chiefs, I was there, and gave them marching orders, and within a few weeks, they put down the insurgency in Yobe. It never came up again until we left office,” he said.
Blasting subsequent governments for allowing the insurgents to keep regrouping and growing, the PDP leader revealed that their lack of action will only give the terrorists more confidence.
Atiku stated that he does not even know how a Nigerian leader can have an appetite to eat while these terrorists kill innocent Nigerians, and it only goes to show that most of the politicians who are elected to rule do not care about the people.
Abubakar believes that leaders must be held responsible for all the insecurity in Nigeria because they let it happen.
“So, I will say there’s a lack of political will on the leaders. When they’re killing your citizens, how can you even eat? They’re killing your citizens and you don’t give a damn; that is the greatest irresponsibility by any political leader, anywhere.
So I hold our leadership responsible for all the insecurity that is going on all over the place,” he added.
