Atiku Points Fingers at Successors for Boko Haram Crisis, Praises Obasanjo’s Decisive Action

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has laid the blame for the persistent Boko Haram insurgency squarely at the feet of Nigerian leaders who came after President Olusegun Obasanjo, asserting that Obasanjo’s administration acted swiftly and effectively to quash the group when it first surfaced.

During a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday with stakeholders from Kogi East Senatorial District, led by ex-Kogi State Deputy Governor Simon Achuba, Atiku recounted how the terrorist group initially appeared in Yobe State in 2002. According to Atiku, Obasanjo immediately sought his counsel on how to address the threat.

“You remember when the Boko Haram started in Yobe? It was actually in 2002. We were in the office. The president sent for me. ‘VP, what do we do about this?’ Then I said, ‘Mr President, let’s call the Service Chiefs and give them a deadline. If they can’t put it down, then they should put down their uniform and go away. We will get some other people,’” Atiku recalled in a video posted to his Facebook page.

Atiku continued, “And he called the Service Chiefs; I was there, and gave them marching orders, and within a few weeks, they put down the insurgency in Yobe. It never came up again until we left office.”

The former Vice President, who served from 1999 to 2007 under Obasanjo, attributed the group’s later resurgence to a lack of political will among subsequent leaders. “So, I will say there’s a lack of political will on the leaders. When they’re killing your citizens, how can you even eat? They’re killing your citizens and you don’t give a damn; that is the greatest irresponsibility by any political leader, anywhere,” he said.

Atiku concluded by holding Nigeria’s leadership responsible for the widespread insecurity, stating, “So I hold our leadership responsible for all the insecurity that is going on all over the place.”