Obasanjo, Kukah, Sultan call for fresh thinking to end Boko Haram insurgency

By Kingsley Omonobi

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria tin lone flooded the Boko Haram insurgency if governmental and information leaders spell beyond the prevailing narratives astir the sect.

Speaking successful Abuja connected Friday astatine the nationalist presumption of “Scars: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum,” a publication authored by erstwhile Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor (retd.), Obasanjo stressed the request for deeper knowing of the group’s origins and motives. He recalled visiting Maiduguri successful 2011 aft the UN bureau bombing to prosecute straight with insurgents.

“I recovered they were not truly aiming for thing governmental oregon earnestly religious, but seeking a amended life,” Obasanjo said, questioning wherefore the insurgency inactive persists aft 15 years. He urged much proactive strategies, informing that Boko Haram, banditry, and kidnapping person present go intertwined.

Also speaking, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, said the insurgency reflects scars of unaccounted-for victims similar Leah Sharibu and the Chibok girls. He faulted the misnaming of the radical arsenic Boko Haram, noting that their self-identity — Jama’at Ahl al-Sunna li al-Da’wa wa al-Jihad — signals a deeper ideological struggle.

Kukah argued that subject unit unsocial cannot decision the sect since insurgents combat to dice portion soldiers combat to live. He added that immoderate bluish politicians exploit religion for power, informing that “Islamism,” the usage of religion to enforce governmental authority, is destructive to Islam itself.

Former National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno identified defective governance and deficiency of nationalist cohesion arsenic large impediments to peace. “You cannot code insecurity successful the lack of nationalist cohesion,” helium said, stressing that governance failures substance conflicts.

On his part, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, clarified misconceptions astir jihad, stressing it means “to strive” for excellence, not violence. He said the insurgents’ existent grievance is atrocious governance, not rejection of education.

“Many of them person been educated. Their grievance is rooted successful atrocious governance; they privation state and the close to unrecorded arsenic they consciousness they should,” the Sultan explained.

The lawsuit underscored a statement among the speakers that defeating Boko Haram requires caller thinking, inclusive governance, and designation of the analyzable interplay of ideology, governance, and societal justice.

The station Obasanjo, Kukah, Sultan telephone for caller reasoning to extremity Boko Haram insurgency appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.