The former president was speaking at a lecture delivered by
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi in celebration of Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s 40th
anniversary as founder of the Word of Life Bible Church, Warri in Delta State.
Obasanjo also tasked Nigerians to choose between a strong leader who might
adopt unusual approach to tackle a problem or a weak leader who will leave the
problem to fester.
While responding to a question from a pastor from Borno State on how he could forge any form of unity with those who are perpetuating violence in the northern part of the country, Obasanjo went philosophical, saying: “Boko Haram is an ill wind that blows nobody no good.”
The former president also narrated his experience when he visited the hot-bed of Boko Haram, Borno, on a fact-finding mission and blamed the government’s inability to act on his findings as reason why the problem grew to “become something else.”
“Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it unattended to. On two occasions I had to attend to the problem I faced at that time. I sent soldiers to a place and 19 of them were killed. If I had allowed that to continue, I will not have authority to send security whether police, soldier and any force any where again. So, I had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular problem,” he said.
Obasanjo was however quick to admit that not all problems might require a tough stance as according to him, “if you say you don’t want a strong leader who can have all characteristics of leaders including God fearing, then have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”
Theformer president was also quick to dispel insinuations that he single-handedly foisted president Jonathan on Nigerians saying that he didn’t give all the votes that brought him to power. But he did give a remedy when he said, “the beauty of democracy is that power rests in the people, and every elected person would seek your votes to come back; if you don’t want him, he won’t come back.”
And like he has been advocating over the last couple of days, the erstwhile PDP BOT Chairman charged Nigerians to stand up and take their destinies in their own hands, reminding them of a Yoruba adage, “if you say it the way it is, you will die; if you don’t say anything at all, you will die, why don’t you say it and die?”
While responding to a question from a pastor from Borno State on how he could forge any form of unity with those who are perpetuating violence in the northern part of the country, Obasanjo went philosophical, saying: “Boko Haram is an ill wind that blows nobody no good.”
The former president also narrated his experience when he visited the hot-bed of Boko Haram, Borno, on a fact-finding mission and blamed the government’s inability to act on his findings as reason why the problem grew to “become something else.”
“Whichever way, you just have to attend to it. Don’t leave it unattended to. On two occasions I had to attend to the problem I faced at that time. I sent soldiers to a place and 19 of them were killed. If I had allowed that to continue, I will not have authority to send security whether police, soldier and any force any where again. So, I had to nip it in the bud and that was the end of that particular problem,” he said.
Obasanjo was however quick to admit that not all problems might require a tough stance as according to him, “if you say you don’t want a strong leader who can have all characteristics of leaders including God fearing, then have a weak leader and the rest of the problem is yours.”
Theformer president was also quick to dispel insinuations that he single-handedly foisted president Jonathan on Nigerians saying that he didn’t give all the votes that brought him to power. But he did give a remedy when he said, “the beauty of democracy is that power rests in the people, and every elected person would seek your votes to come back; if you don’t want him, he won’t come back.”
And like he has been advocating over the last couple of days, the erstwhile PDP BOT Chairman charged Nigerians to stand up and take their destinies in their own hands, reminding them of a Yoruba adage, “if you say it the way it is, you will die; if you don’t say anything at all, you will die, why don’t you say it and die?”
