Nigeria ex-President Urges Focus on Rebellion Causes
Nigeria's former president Olesugun Obasanjo said on Tuesday that the root causes of the Islamist insurgency by Boko Haram need to be understood first before the problem can be resolved.
"We have to identify our problem," Obasanjo said, speaking on the sidelines of a conference on a European Union project against drug trafficking.
"The first thing is to identify the remote and immediate cause of that problem," he said, adding: "I have always prescribed stick and carrot".
Obasanjo said there was "criminality" behind the Boko Haram insurgency -- particularly involvement in drug, arms and human trafficking.
But he said there were also fundamental problems with poverty and unemployment in northern Nigeria.
"This is not an issue to be solved by a stick alone... These are issues that you cannot solve overnight," he said at a press conference.
Violence linked to Boko Haram's insurgency in northern and central Nigeria has led to the deaths of some 3,000 people since 2009, including killings by the security forces.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan earlier this month imposed a state of emergency in three states menaced by Boko Haram, saying the level of violence calls for "extraordinary measures".
28 May 2013, 17:16
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This Baboon while he was president of Nigeria for 8 years what did he do to solve the poverty problems he now sees in the north?
These Boko Haram terrorists are international Islamic fundamentalists.
They do not have any good reason to justify the atrocities they commit.
If Obasanjo felt they have, let him tell us, and if they were as a result of cumulative poverty, let him tell us how he himself was not part of Nigeria's problems rather than trying to sound like a saint and as if he is the only person that can rule Nigeria.
