Obasanjo blames Jonathan for Boko Haram’s spread

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has blamed ex- President Goodluck Jonathan for the unending Boko Haram menace.Obasanjo spoke in an interview in Lagos with Nkem Ifejika of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

According to him, it was unfortunate that Jonathan did not take the insurgency seriously, because he thought it was a device by the north to bring down his government.

He said the country needed to tackle the origin of the problem rather than the symptoms.Obasanjo explained that when he visited Maiduguri in 2011, he learnt about the sect’s grievances, which he took to Jonathan with the expectation that he would address the issues.

“Even when the Chibok girls were abducted, it took a while for the government to believe. Now if that is the situation, you can understand why the right attention was not paid to the issue of Boko Haram when it should have been paid.

“Boko Haram would not be over. It started from a position of gross under-development, unemployment and youth frustration in the northeast. So we must be treating the disease and not the symptoms.”