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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has revealed that the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo quickly extinguished the initial appearance of Boko Haram in 2002, linking the success of leadership that determines and political will.
Atiku made this statement on Wednesday during a meeting with stakeholders from the Kogi East Senatorial District, led by former Deputy Governor of State Kogi Simon Achuba. The meeting took place in Abuja and clips from the session then shared on Atiku’s official Facebook page.
Given the early days of extremist groups, Atiku said Boko Haram first appeared in the state of Yobe in 2002. He told that President Obasanjo immediately consulted with him about the appropriate response.
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“Do you remember when Boko Haram began in Yobe? That’s actually in 2002. We were in the office. The President sent me. ‘VP, what do we do about this?'” Said Atiku. “Then I said, ‘Mr. President, let’s call the head of the service and give them a deadline. If they can’t put it, they must put their uniforms and leave. We will get someone else.'”
According to Atikiku, the heads of service were called and given a rigorous order. Within a few weeks, the rebellion was extinguished and, he said, did not reappear until after the government they left the office in 2007.
The former vice president, who served under Obasanjo during his return to Nigeria to a democratic government in the fourth republic, expressed concern over sustainable insecurity throughout the country. He blamed the resurrection and spread of Boko Haram and other groups of violence about what he described as a lack of political will among consecutive leaders.
“When they kill your citizens, how can you eat? They kill your citizens and you don’t care – that is not responsible for any political leader, anywhere,” he said. “So I consider our leadership to be responsible for all insecurity that occurs in all places.”
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