Obasanjo, who led Nigeria in the 1970s as military ruler and as president from 1999 to 2007, said that both carrots and sticks were needed in dealing with Boko Haram, who recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State (Isis) and last year kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls, many of whom remain in captivity.
In the interview with IBTimes UK on the sidelines of the Global Education Forum conference in Dubai, Obasanjo said that while 79% of Nigerians received education in the south west of the country
and 77% in the south east, in the Boko Haram stronghold of the north east that figure was just 19%.
“We don’t need [anyone] to tell [us] that that is a problem. A problem of disparity, a problem of marginalisation. A problem because education is fundamental to your employability, to your living conditions. If you are not educated you are handicapped,” he said.
But he said that while improving access to education was the carrot, the stick had to come first, and criticised the current administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for failing to act fast enough in taking the fight to Boko Haram. That failure, he said, had given the group confidence to spread to neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.
“The response of the government initially was definitely not enough. When Boko Haram started showing their fangs about four years ago the reaction should have been firm and unmistakable. We have lost ground,” he said.
Obasanjo said that the spread of Boko Haram into other countries had provoked a regional response and that both Chad and Cameroon were involved in the military campaign against the terror group.
But he added that once progress had been made, Nigeria should not rule out engaging with the militants.
“If Boko Haram is ready to talk, [we should talk]. But by the time they are ready to talk they will need to be pounded a little bit militarily: at that stage they will be ready to talk.
When we were dealing with the carrot aspect, the stick aspect should have been firm. I hope with that, we’ll now go the carrot, the carrot is those things rightly or wrongly perceived as injustice or grievances that can now be dealt with.
But the false confidence of the militants to go into Chad, Niger and neighbouring countries has now led to a regional coalition of military and that has been reasonably effective; it has not completely solved the problem.”
