Boko Haram: Obasanjo Suggests Jonathan Uses “Carrot and Stick” Approach!

OBJ Dares GEJ I Won’t Stop Criticising YouFormer president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has insisted that yesterday, said more can be done to reach out to the militant Islamist group Boko Haram to find out what leads it to carry out acts of violence.

Speaking in an interview with CNN, Obasanjo suggested the current government should adopt a dual-track approach rather than just cracking down on the group. according to him, “To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick.”

As far as the former president is concerned, President Goodluck Jonathan was “just using the stick” in his efforts, noting: “He’s doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten.”

Obasanjo noted that he had tried to reach out to Boko Haram about a year and a half ago through a lawyer who was acting as the group’s proxy, and had asked if they had external backing. He said the lawyer told him that the group was receiving support from other Nigerians who have resources overseas or “other organizations from abroad”. He then noted that: “If they had 25 per cent support a year and a half ago, today that support has doubled.”

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