Olusegun Obasanjo Speaks on Rising Insurgency in Nigeria

Olusegun Obasanjo Speaks on Rising Insurgency in Nigeria

  • Former president Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria's population is the leading cause of insurgency in the country
  • According to him, this is aided by the teeming unemployed youths who easily be recruited into crime
  • As a result of this, Obasanjo said Nigeria is in serious trouble if it cannot provide jobs for the youths

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed reasons for criminality in Nigeria.

According to him, insurgency, banditry is on the rise in Nigeria as a result the country’s increasing population. In fact, the former president said this keeps him awake at night.

He disclosed this during the public presentation of the 2020 Africa Progress Group (APG) report in Lagos themed: ‘‘Making Africa’s Population an Asset", Guardian newspaper reports.

Obasanjo speaks on rising insurgency in Nigeria
Olusegun Obasanjo says unemployment is affecting Nigeria. Photo: The Guardian newspaper
Source: Facebook

Obasanjo insisted that the reason for uprising and terrorism in the country is not far from the fact that there are large armies of unemployed youths who are being recruited into violent extremist groups and criminal gangs.

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He said:

“Mohammed Yusuf who started Boko Haram was said to be a good and responsible man with a lot of idle youths waiting to listen to him. I heard there was a time he called his followers and said to one, ‘you went to university, how many years now since you graduated?’ He said three years and what are you doing now? He said, ‘no job.’ Then he replied, ‘you see the uselessness of your university education.’

“That is how the word Boko Haram came up. By virtue of his followers not having jobs, he said ‘you see the uselessness of your western education.’ If we cannot provide jobs for our population, we are really in serious trouble. Nobody needs to tell us anything more."

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state on Sunday, August 15, revealed that the country cannot afford to lose Obasanjo.

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Abiodun adopted the former Nigerian leader as his father saying Obasanjo still had a lot to offer the nation and humanity.

The governor made the disclosure when the former president paid a condolence visit to him over the death of his father, Pa Emmanuel Abiodun, at the Iperu-Remo family house. Obasanjo on his part said he had come on the condolence visit to share in the grief of missing a loved one.

Mantu will be sorely missed - Obasanjo

In another development, Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed shock over the death of the former deputy Senate president, Ibrahim Mantu.

In a condolence letter sent to Mantu's son, Musa Ibrahim Mantu, on behalf of the family on Tuesday, August 17, Obasanjo said Mantu served his country meritoriously. Obasanjo stated that the late lawmaker accorded his administration's reform agenda between 1999 and 2007 his valued, unequivocal support.

Obasanjo said Mantu will be sorely missed by those who knew him, particularly his colleagues in the Senate and his friends.

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Source: Legit.ng

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