How North East governors fuelled B'Haram- Obasanjo

*As document gives reasons why terrorism may not be defeated soon

By Ikenna Asomba

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the comments attributed to former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to use education to sustain the progress made so far in the war against Boko Haram.

Obasanjo, while delivering a lecture entitled “Effective Education, a Panacea for Societal Development and Transformation,” at the 11th convocation ceremony of the Benson Idahosa University (BIU), Benin City, attributed the scourge in the North East to poverty and lack of education among the youths, even as he blamed governors from the North East, during his administration, for fuelling terrorism in their region.

Meanwhile, supporting Obasanjo's viewpoint is a recent statistics from Afri-Dev.Info's Policy Brief and Editorial entitled, “Highlights of 2015 Nigeria Multi-sectoral Scorecard and Factsheet on Education, Governance, Peace and Security: Social Conditions Facilitating Rise of Boko Haram.”

According to the document obtained by Vanguard, of the six geopolitical zones, while the North East has the highest percentage of males over the age of 6 years, who have not had access to any form of education, leading to un-employability, impoverishment and destitution on a mass scale, the North West has the highest percentage of female over the age of 6 years, with no education.

In his lecture, the former President Obasanjo said the refusal of governors in the North East to pay their counterpart funds when his administration established the Universal Basic Education (UBE), which would have given children in their area, opportunity to enjoy free and compulsory education, was the cause of today's Boko Haram insurgency in the region.

Recall that President Obasanjo formally launched the UBE in Nigeria on 30th September, 1999, which was intended to be universal, free, and compulsory.

Stressing the need to provide compulsory education in the North East and re-orientate the people of the area on the need to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, Obasanjo said: “Education is a moral enterprise which we need to re-engage, the issue of Boko Haram. President Buhari should also tackle it from the angle of moral education. If we are able to tackle Boko Haram with education in our schools, both in the social media that they use, we will dilute their messages and positively win their hearts and others who have been swayed by the Jihadists messages.

“To succeed with counter messages, we need to be more appealing, and truthful and as intense as those of Boko Haram, if not more. The capacity of all teachers would be strengthened to deliver such messages. The morning and afternoon assemblies of our primary and secondary schools should have a strong dose of such messages. Our airwaves and social media should also be saturated with such positive messages. Even if we defeat Boko Haram on the battle front, we need education to sustain the victory,” he said.

Further blaming lack of education to the insurgency in the North East, he said a 2010 survey in Nigeria's education sector across the six geopolitical zones, puts the North East as region with the highest percentage of males and females with no education.

“Let me give you an insight. In 2010, there was a survey of education in Nigeria and among the six geopolitical zones; in the South West, it was 79 per cent that are educated. In the South East, it is about 78 per cent. In the North East, where Boko Haram dominates, it is 19 per cent and that is one of the reasons people believe that Boko Haram was a menace waiting to happen. It doesn’t matter what we do, we have to reverse that trend. Maybe, the situation has even gone worse in the last five years because people have moved out of school. Some schools have been destroyed and we cannot fold our arms and say it is up to the North East.

“It is up to all of us in Nigeria. We have to do what should be done to bring parity in the area of education across the length and breadth of the country. The Boko Haram insurgency is a serious problem which we pray will be a thing of the past soon. There are several factors into the insurgency, I am sure that President Buhari will do the needful to exterminate this scourge.”

Shocking statistics

The document read in part: “Percentage of male with no education- North East (52.4%), North West (46.9%), North Central (22.6%), South West (11.6%), South East (10.7%), and South South (6.1%).

“Percentage of female with no North West (62.8%), North East (61.1%), North Central (38.0%), South East (18.7%), South West (17.1%), and South South (13.0%).

Also, according to the document, of the 19 Northern States, at least eight have over 50 percent of males over the age of 6 years, who have not had access to any form of education, adding that these states all bordered Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

It said: “Yobe with an estimate male population of 1, 431, 202 has 83.3% males with no education; Borno with an estimate male population of 2, 557, 002 has 63.6% males with no education; Kebbi with an estimate male population of 1, 900, 705 has 59.9% males with no education; Sokoto with an estimate male population of 2, 160, 554 has 57.4% males with no education; Zamfara with an estimate male population of 1, 921, 639 has 55.8% males with no education; Katsina with an estimate male population of 3, 417, 863 has 54.8% males with no education; Jigawa with an estimate male population of 2, 535, 862 has 54.7% males with no education and Bauchi with an estimate male population of 2, 800, 377 has 51.5% males with no education.”

Why B'Haram may not be defeated

It added that the Boko Haram menace in the region may not be defeated “If state and federal officials continue to avoid acknowledging and acting on the weak governance and poor socio-economic conditions Boko Haram has exploited - and in particular the poor state of education and youth development - the apparent mystery will continue to grow as to why exactly Boko Haram "has not been militarily defeated" - and hundreds of millions of dollars more will be expended trying to impose an exclusively military solution to contain an insurgency problem fueled by underdevelopment.

“Clearly not every uneducated male in North East and North West Nigeria are members of, or even sympathizers of Boko Haram. But if just 10%, or even 1% of the above numbers empathize with, or are vulnerable to Boko Haram’s brutal indoctrination – this would translate into roughly tens, or hundreds of thousands.

“Exclusion and marginalization from modern society on this scale (in the face of poor governance and opulent ‘fat cat’ officials) translates into a large pool of resentment and potential sympathizers for Boko Haram.

“Extremists of various types exist on all continents, and some are well educated. However they are generally individuals or small groups - unless presented (through weak governance, poor socio-economic conditions, marginalization, persecution, irrational fears, or other reasons for mass resentment) - with the incredible gift of hundreds, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of potential sympathizers and recruits - and the real possibility of expanding into a trans-national anti-social movement.”