According to the report presented by Senator Ahmed Lawan, Chairman of the committee, the said amounts cut across the Natural Resources Account, Derivation and Ecology Accounts and Stabilization Account.

The Special Funds Accounts, comprising Development of Natural Resources Account, Derivation and Ecology Account and Stabilization Account were being maintained by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Senator Ahmed Lawan in his submission said that the amount was misappropriated between 2002 and 2012 by the governments of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Late President Umaru Yar’Adua and current President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the governments at various levels abused the Special Funds Account by making several releases not related to what the accounts were designed to achieve.

Breakdown of the report showed that N710,489,494,960.6, N149,881,359,210 and N191,780,136,241 were reportedly misused by the three administrations in the Derivation and Ecology Account; Development of Natural Resources Account and Stabilization Account respectively.

According to the committee in its report, within the period under review, the sum of one trillion, five hundred and eighteen billion, eight hundred and seventy one million, three hundred and fifty seven thousand, four hundred and twenty six naira, sixty four kobo (N1, 518, 871, 357, 426.64) was the accruals to the special funds accounts.

The sum of one trillion, two hundred and thirty five billion, one hundred and sixty six million, seven hundred and eighty one thousand, three hundred and forty seven naira, fifty two kobo (N1, 235, 166, 781, 347. 52) was the total payments from the special funds account.

Also, five hundred and eighty billion, nineteen million, six hundred and eighty two thousand, seven hundred and thirty eight naira (N580, 019, 682, 738) was released as loan; and three hundred and forty seven billion, nine hundred and ninety seven million, five hundred and eighty three thousand, and eight naira and forty one kobo (N347, 997, 583, 008.41) yet to be recovered from various loans beneficiaries.

The Report

Senator Ahmed Lawan, earlier in his presentation of the report said: “The operation of the Natural Resources Account is grossly abused because several releases under this account were not related to the intendment of the account.”

Out of a total of N329, 329, 745, 916 granted as loan, N200, 585, 790, 991. 64 is still outstanding under the Natural Resources Account; under the derivation and Ecology Account, a total of N61, 000, 000, 000.00 was granted as loan leaving an outstanding of N30, 000, 000, 000.00.

“Several approvals made from the special funds accounts do not conform to the purposes for which the funds were established; and there were no operational guidelines for the administration, regulations, approvals and procedures for the release of money from such funds.”

It also noted that loans granted from the accounts have not been paid back several years after such loans were granted.

Involve EFCC, ICPC — Ekeremadu

In his contribution, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, called on the Public Accounts committee to undertake further inquiry to determine whether loans given from the special funds accounts had been recovered.

Ekweremadu said in an event where the monies have not been recovered, the Senate should invite the EFCC and ICPC to wade into the matter, as failure to do so would be interpreted by the public as the National Assembly abdicating from its responsibilities.

He said: “Section 8(82) (of the constitution) said, no money shall be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue fund of the federation except to meet expenditure.

“In this situation, we have seen where monies meant for ecological fund are being used to develop airports, to build malls and then to build abattoir. So that is the crux of the matter. Most of them according to the report of the committee, indeed all of them, have not been recovered.

“This committee will need to do further work to ensure that they hear from the other side of the divide or this matter be referred to the EFCC or ICPC to do further investigation.”

Also commenting, the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma Egba said the impunity shown in the report confirmed his earlier belief that the nation’s public finances still remain opaque after 14 years of democratic governance as they were under military rule.

His words: “All the misapplications of funds carried out by the executive in the special funds accounts since 2002 are clear attestations of an opaque public finances in Nigeria where for now, transparency and accountability are rules not adhered to, in anyway by the executive arm of government.”

Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Abdul Ningi who also doubles as Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, said: “This is sheer crass executive recklessness and the National Assembly indifference to it.”

N’Assembly to be blamed too — Mark

Meanwhile the Senate did not exonerate itself from the blame, stressing that the abuse was an indictment on the National Assembly because if they had carried out their work effectively, the problem would have been discovered before now.

Senate President David Mark, while reacting to the absence of guidelines for the operation of the special funds account, said: “We are taking it for granted that these funds exist and they can be used in any way and manner. And I think that is truly an indictment on the National Assembly. It is a wake up call for the National Assembly to do its work properly.

“It is an intervention fund in several areas and they are also specified: Development of mineral resources, Derivation and Ecology fund and Stabilization Account. Our problem here is how these funds are being utilized.”

He demanded from the Chairman of the Committee as to whether there were guidelines on the appropriation of such funds.

“It is a combination of their own personal issues and those who collect the loans and those who are given. We as Nigerian citizens and as the legislature, this is about our own collective intelligence.

“We must not under any guise sweep away these findings. Going forward this chamber must have to add a committee to make sure that the loans which were collected are refunded, and where there is a breach, such persons must be brought to book by being prosecuted.

“This impunity is ongoing; it has not stopped, because even in 2011 we could see the impunity by the coordinating minister. That means the trend continues.”

When asked whether there were guidelines, Senator Lawan said, “there is no guideline. But during the public hearing, the committee asked the permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, how he would define special funds accounts. And he said that is a discretionary account; and what that means is that they can do whatever they want with it. But again there are document of the Ministry of Finance indicating clearly the purpose for each of these three accounts and the beneficiaries, so it is not a discretionary account but there is no guideline.

-Punch

Odusanya reportedly worked behind the scenes when Obasanjo was in power.

In a live interview, with an online news portal, Sahara Reporters, Odusanya alleged that the former President lodged the killer squad at a State Security Service headquarters, known as ‘Yellow House.’

He appeared on the programme alongside Mr. Segun Seriki, a PDP member in Ogun State and a member of the House of Representatives in the Third Republic, under the Social Democratic Party.

According to Odusanya, the squad was used for political assassinations and was responsible for the unresolved killings of politicians under Obasanjo’s administration.

He further alleged that Obasanjo knew about the murder of the former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, and a South-South politician, Chief Harry Marshall.

Odusanya said, “I believe that a killer squad created during the Abacha regime was kept by Obasanjo and housed at SSS headquarters, known as Yellow House, and was used for political assassinations.”

Explaining Obasanjo’s alleged link with Ige’s death, Odusanya said, “The night Chief Bola Ige was assassinated, a top PDP member confided in me that Obasanjo told him Bola Ige was down.”

Concerning the murder of Marshall, he said, “I also took a gift to Marshall and he was assassinated just a few weeks later.”

Odusanya also alleged that the ex-president benefitted from an account with the defunct Trans-International Bank and that from the funds in the account, Obasanjo, asked him to deliver a Peugeot 607 and the sum of N500,000 to a woman (name withheld).

When contacted for Obasanjo’s comments, his Chief of Staff, Mr. Victor Durodola, said his boss was not available to react to the allegations.

He challenged those who made the allegations to come out with their evidence.

Durodola said, “The former president is not available. Therefore, he is not in a position to respond to the allegations. However, my personal comment is that these are people who indulge in blackmail.

“Why are they using online television? They should come to Channels, AIT, or NTA; these are television stations that are known.

“Definitely, that is not Obasanjo’s character they are describing and everybody knows that. Of all the military rulers, the issue of killer squad cannot be attributed to him. That was not his style. He is not around now but I doubt if he would even give it any attention whatsoever.

He stressed that the ex-president could not have been responsible for the unresolved killings under his administration.

He further argued that Obasanjo had no reason to be involved in Ige’s assassination.

“We would like to see it (the interview) but these are issues you know cannot be possible. The killings were unresolved, yes, but you know that nobody could have attributed that to him. He would kill his minister for what? So that he (Obasanjo) could be minister?” Durodola said.

Another Obasanjo aide, Vitalis Ortese, told one of our correspondents on the telephone that the allegation was a non-issue.

He said, “I don’t know them. Let them prove the allegation. I don’t know any Segun Seriki or Richard Odusanya.”

Also reacting to the allegations, Bola Ige’s eldest child, Mrs. Funsho Adegbola, told SUNDAY PUNCH that her father’s killers are still alive.

Adegbola, a lawyer, called for the reopening of the Bola Ige murder case.

She said, “I can’t put anything past them. I haven’t seen the interview. I don’t know the content of the report but I can’t put anything past them. I believe the people who killed my father – the foot soldiers and the people who sent them – are alive. They are not people from Mars.

“A murder case can go on for 30 years or more. If there is political will and the government wants to show that people should pay for their crimes, this can be done. The family can’t do anything about it because it is the state versus the suspects. The family can’t sue; it is the state that can take action.”

Ige, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was shot dead in his Ibadan home on December 23, 2001.

Following a mass protest over the killing, the Federal Government had deployed troops in the South-Western state to prevent a breakdown of law and order.

While security agencies had arrested some suspects allegedly involved in the murder, including the then deputy governor of Osun State – Ige’s home state – Mr. Iyiola Omisore, they were however discharged and acquitted.

Just like Ige, Marshall Harry, who was the National Coordinator, South-South geopolitical zone of the All Nigerian Peoples Party Presidential Campaign was murdered by at his No,28 Karaye Close, Garki II, Abuja residence on March 5, 2003, barely a month to the presidential election in which Obasanjo was re-elected.

The ANPP chieftain was said to have been killed in the presence of his daughter and his niece, Loliya Harry.

The only security guard in the house, Mr. Polini Aniya, said the assailants numbering about five forced their way into the ANPP chieftain’s residence around 3am.

The ANPP, and it presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, had insisted that agents of the PDP and Federal Government assassinated Harry.

At Harry’s burial ceremony, Buhari, alleged that in its desperation to rig itself into power, the PDP-controlled Federal Government bankrolled assassins to eliminate political opponents.

After the incident, the police arrested four suspects in connection with the murder.

However, after seven years in detention, the accused standing trial for the murder were discharged and acquitted by an Abuja High Court.

The court cited lack of enough evidence to sustain the charge against them.

Via Punch

By Jide Ajani

Fresh facts emerged, at the weekend, that former President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo is intensifying his opposition to the 2015 re-election aspiration of incumbent President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan.

This is at a time when some hawks in the Presidency are pressing for decisiveness on the part of Mr. President, with a view to clipping Obasanjo’s wings.

The latest indication about the former President’s moves are what sources described as the “series of meetings and consultations between Obasanjo and traditional rulers in the North”.

A former state governor familiar with the surreptitious movements of Obasanjo in the last one month told Sunday Vanguard: “The former president has been moving round the North under the guise of being a special guest at functions; but the real reason for his visits to the North is the series of consultations he is holding with traditional rulers across the zones – save, of course, North East geo-political zone where the dreaded Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, holds sway”.

It was learnt that Obasanjo’s latest moves are “with a view to pacifying the North which heaps on his head all the blames for the loss of its hold on power as occasioned by the death of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a death which paved the way for the enthronement of Jonathan as president.

“What Obasanjo has come to realize is that even most of those he considers his traditional friends and confidants poke disdain at him for his role in the imposition of the late Yar’Adua and Jonathan as presidential candidate and running mate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in 2007, and he is very desperate to make it up to ‘his people’”.
“The meetings are centred on how best the North can present a united front against the aspiration of Jonathan. And because of his vast network of friends across the country, Obasanjo is cashing all his cheques because of this project”.

Sunday Vanguard can also report that the off-and-on relationship between Obasanjo and former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, has again engaged the ‘ON’ mode.
“When you see Obasanjo and Babangida coming together again with their interests coalescing, then you know something is in the air”, our source said.

Another source – a former presidential aide – that is very familiar with the scheme, said, “It is not so much of what Obasanjo wants from the northern traditional rulers but what the rulers want from him. Yes, I can confirm to you that he has been all over the place and he has been holding series of consultations. The agenda is to work against the 2015 aspiration of President Jonathan”.

Asked about the rumoured rapprochement between Obasanjo and his ex-deputy, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the source was emphatic in saying that “the two have not sat down to meet one on one but there are behind the scene consultations with a view to ensuring that happens”.

In addition, Obasanjo is also said to be in consultation with a few PDP state governors who are very loyal to him, specifically Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State.

Indeed, sensing this emerging threat, PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih, launched a counter offensive.

Already, the BoT Chairman has held talks with Lamido, Kwankwaso, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, and Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State, among others.

His rescue mission is to “ensure that a proper reconciliation is engendered between the President and the state governors”, a very dependable source told Sunday Vanguard.
The talks, which are continuing, are said to be “yielding very positive results”.
On his part, Jonathan himself held talks with a section of Yoruba leaders three weeks ago in Lagos.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the meeting, which had some elders in the land as well as a very strategic traditional ruler in attendance, explored ways of pacifying the S/West geo-political zone which is increasingly becoming vociferous about its claims of marginalization under the Jonathan administration.

The Yoruba leaders, who do not appear to be on the same page with the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, or its intended successor party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, are to hold another round of talks with the President at a later date.
Interestingly, even as the President patience is being taxed by Obasanjo’s scheme, some hawks in Aso Rock Presidential Villa are of the view that the former President’s wings should be clipped.

A Presidency source told Sunday Vanguard:”It is because President Jonathan is mild-mannered; if not, are we not living witnesses to how the former President deployed state power to haunt those he perceived as capable of stopping him from achieving his failed Third Term agenda?

“That he is walking the streets of Nigeria free does not mean he is a saint, especially the way he’s been carrying on. Is it not the mess that he created after eight years in office that this administration is still battling to clear”?, the Presidency source quipped.

Via Vanguard

Obasanjo lamented that the dearth of good leaders in the country as well as on the African continent, had become an issue that deserved serious attention.

The former president spoke during the final of the African Regional Inter Collegiate Debate on Human Security held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta.

He stressed that the shortage of good leaders in Nigeria and Africa had constituted a clog in the country and continent’s wheel of progress.

Obasanjo described leadership as very important in the governance of every country.

“Nobody will help Africa, nobody can help Africa and that is the truth. If we expect others from outside to come and help us, it is second class help. What do I see for the future? We have the caliber of women, men, young and old, that Africa needs to put itself up and to make its voice heard in the world today and tomorrow.

“Very soon, I do hope that we’ll bring in leadership in all dimensions and in all ramifications. I realise that we have many Nigerians and there are not many good leaders in Nigeria. Whatever is the reason, it is something we have to tackle because we cannot continue the way it is.”

The former president noted that under democracy, the citizens had the freedom to deliberate on issues that were of importance to the society.

He said in Nigeria, “we have problems of job creation, employment generation and wealth creation.”

Obasanjo said he was shocked when the Chairman of Dangote Group, Mr. Dangote, informed him that six doctorate degree holders and over 600 others, with masters degree applied as truck drivers to his organisation.

He said that was an example of the problems of job creation and wealth creation confronting the society.

Obasanjo said it would be impossible for all citizens to be engaged in the same profession, adding that when he was in government, he did not support any professional group that would hold the country to ransom.

Speaking on the importance of education said, “If you want to break the cycle of poverty, education is the instrument to do that. the Yoruba say three generations do not suffer chronic poverty.”

He added that the debate was to prepare the youth for the future. “The future belongs to the youth because nobody can help Africa than we Africans,” he stated.

-Punch

-Tribune

Both leaders went deeper into the trenches in their battle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the weekend.

While Jonathan moved to consolidate his grip on the party which, on Friday, sacked Obasanjo’s loyalists, from the South West, from the National Working Committee (NWC), the former president’s loyalists hinted they were taking their case to the National Executive Committee (NEC) for intervention.

The Obasanjo loyalists also accused the PDP national chairman, Alhaji Bamangar Tukur, of replacing the sacked supporters of the former president with a caretaker committee in the South West zone headed by his associate, Mr Ishola Filani.

Filani was a special adviser to the PDP national chairman, perceived to be on the side of Jonathan in his feud with Obasanjo.

The Jonathan, Obasanjo feud climaxed on Friday with the sack of the latter’s associates, Mr Segun Oni, PDP national chairman, South-West, and the national auditor, Mr Bode Mustapha, from the National Working Committee (NWC).

The sack was the fallout of the court verdict which earlier ousted the PDP national secretary, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, also an Obasanjo associate.

Total grip
Sunday Vanguard gathered, at the weekend, that the president, as part of moves to have a total grip of the party, will hold a meeting with members of the G-84, comprising state chairmen of the party, members of the NWC, members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, and some select members of the NEC.

President Jonathan and Gen. Obasanjo (Rtd)
The first leg of the meeting was held on Thursday, but Jonathan, as learnt, asked Vice President Namadi Sambo to preside, just as the issues reportedly raised were, among others, the need for the party to grow in an atmosphere of peace and unity.

At the meeting, Sunday Vanguard that those in attendance commended the president on his achievements especially in the area of the economy, infrastructure and assured of their unalloyed support to the Jonathan administration.
Sambo was said to have thanked them for the visit and they pledged their support.

According to a source close to the Presidency, a follow-up meeting was being planned where the G84 members will meet with the president on the need to be with him at all times as the leader of the party.

Prior to the last meeting of the BoT, held January 7, where a new chairman ought to have emerged, there very strong indications that Jonathan relaxed, but what happened the night before the meeting was cancelled opened his eyes to the intrigues in the party.
As the PDP leader, he was said to have found that he was not in charge especially against the backdrop that his favoured candidate would have lost as Obasanjo and his former Vice, Atiku Abubakar, though not at the meeting, were in charge of the events of the day, save for the Professor Jerry Gana-led committee coordinating the parley.

Another move was a motion by Senate President David Mark at the BoT meeting to have another five-year tenure for the Secretary, Senator Walid Jibrin, from Nasarawa State and that blocked the chances of Obasanjo’s loyalist and former Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, from becoming the Chairman of the BoT and to pave the way for Chief Tony Anenih, whom Jonathan is said to be backing for the position.

To start with, the president, through the PDP National Chairman, Tukur, immediately asked Onwe Solomon Onwe, an ally of Jonathan, to step into the shoes Oyinlola, an associate of Obasanjo.

In sacking Oni and Mustapha on Friday, the PDP NWC also axed the Ogun State faction of the party loyal to Obasanjo.

The NWC recognised the faction of the PDP which has been in opposition to the former president.

‘Our case for the PDP NEC’

The chairman of the Obasanjo faction of the Ogun PDP, Senator Dipo Odujinrin, who spoke on behalf of the loyalists of the former president after an emergency meeting that lasted about seven hours in Abeokuta, the state capital, yesterday, said they were taking their case to the party NEC.

According to Odujinrin, Obasanjo’s followers were shocked by the action of the NWC in sacking the PDP zonal leadership and the former president’s faction of the party in Ogun.

According to him, the Obasanjo group will seek to get the NEC to reverse the NWC action.
Odunjinrin explained that their move was in accordance with Article 31 Sub-Section 2(8) of the party’s constitution.

“At our meeting this afternoon, we resolved in accordance with Article 31 sub-sections 2 (8) of our constitution to appeal to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party which is the much higher body than the National Working Committee (NWC) and we believe that our appeal to that body would receive a favourable consideration and this injustice is corrected,”he stated.

“We put our faith in the National Executive Committee of PDP and trust that the right thing will be done”.
The ousted chairman also said that the impatiality of the members of the South West caretaker committee of the PDP was doubted, stressing that the chairman of the committee, Ishola Filani, was a special adviser (politics) to Tukur.

Via Vanguard

Obasanjo stated this in an exclusive interview published in the February issue of the pan-African magazine, New African. He blamed Jonathan for the deteriorating situation caused by the insurgent Boko Haram.

“If the President is the chief security officer of the country and there is a security problem, where do you go for the solution? And if that solution is not coming from the chief security officer, who else inside and outside will get a solution? He has the responsibility to solve the problem, and nobody else should be blamed but him.”

In a wide-ranging interview, the former General also challenged claims made by Nigerian literary giant, Chinua Achebe, regarding the country’s civil war in the 1960s. Obasanjo rebuffed claims that successive Nigerian administrations have marginalized the Igbo ethnic group within the country.

“Maybe he is making those remarks because he is not living in Nigeria. If he was living in Nigeria, when I was the president of this country, an Igbo lady was my Minister of Finance, and Igbo man was the Governor of the Central Bank; an Igbo man was one of the military service chiefs. The permanent representative to the UN was also an Igbo person. What more do you want? For someone to say the civil war has not ended, 40 years after its conclusion, that person is living in the past.”
Via Vanguard

The two-day event billed for the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, from January 18 to 19, is expected to be chaired by former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, and Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido.

Chairman, Planning Committee of the event, Adeyemi Adefulu, at a press conference on Monday in Ibadan, said Obasanjo was being celebrated because he was an outstanding statesman and an icon.

Adefulu added, “Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is being celebrated for his exploits on the political landscape of Nigeria in the past 50years.

“In the 60s, he was a young officer fighting in the Congo on a United Nation’s Mission to restore order to Zaire.

“It is to his glory that he kept faith with the people and in 1979 handed over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari as elected President of Nigeria.

“Having dominated the Nigerian public life in a way no other person has for the past 50 years, the symbolism of another retirement is not lost on us. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has effectively become the father of the nation, a political oracle and a living legend whose life is worth celebrating.”

Meanwhile, the President Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Centre for Human Security and the Institute for Africa Culture and International Understanding on Monday said about N3.675bn would be spent on Delta and Ogun states as well as on other African countries to check unemployment and ensure food security.

The OOPL-CHS and IACIU also said an undisclosed sum would be spent on 12 different projects in the next 10 years

CHS Director, Prof. Peter Okebukola, who spoke at a news conference in Abeokuta, added that one of the pilot projects being implemented would create employment for about two million youths in Ogun alone.

Okebukola said the Feed the Delta Project under the pilot programme of the centre’s Feed Africa Project was aimed at supporting African governments in implementation of policies and programmes that would guarantee food security.
-Punch

Obasanjo who spoke in an interview with CNN, suggested the current government should adopt a dual-track approach rather than just cracking down on the group.

He said: “To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick.”

Obasanjo said President Goodluck Jonathan was “just using the stick” in his efforts, noting: “He’s doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten.”

The former president said he had tried to reach out to Boko Haram about a year and a half ago through a lawyer who was acting as the group’s proxy, and had asked if they had external backing. He said the lawyer told him that the group was receiving support from other Nigerians who have resources overseas or “other organizations from abroad.

“If they had 25 per cent support a year and a half ago, today that support has doubled,” Obasanjo said.

Analysts suggest that reaching out to Boko Haram may be increasingly difficult because the group has split into different factions, some with a domestic focus and others with a more pan-jihadi approach.

Resolving the issue is key to Nigeria’s progress, according to Obasanjo, who now heads an eponymous foundation that is working to promote human security across Africa.

“Boko Haram undermines security, and anything that undermines security undermines development, undermines education, undermines health, undermines agriculture and food and nutrition security,” he said.

Obasanjo who spoke in an interview with CNN, suggested the current government should adopt a dual-track approach rather than just cracking down on the group.

He said: “To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick.”

Obasanjo said President Goodluck Jonathan was “just using the stick” in his efforts, noting: “He’s doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten.”

The former president said he had tried to reach out to Boko Haram about a year and a half ago through a lawyer who was acting as the group’s proxy, and had asked if they had external backing. He said the lawyer told him that the group was receiving support from other Nigerians who have resources overseas or “other organizations from abroad.

“If they had 25 per cent support a year and a half ago, today that support has doubled,” Obasanjo said.

Analysts suggest that reaching out to Boko Haram may be increasingly difficult because the group has split into different factions, some with a domestic focus and others with a more pan-jihadi approach.

Resolving the issue is key to Nigeria’s progress, according to Obasanjo, who now heads an eponymous foundation that is working to promote human security across Africa.

“Boko Haram undermines security, and anything that undermines security undermines development, undermines education, undermines health, undermines agriculture and food and nutrition security,” he said.
-Sun

Obasanjo told the CNN in an interview that Jonathan had been applying less of dialogue and more of force in solving the Boko Haram issue.

“To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them. When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick,” the ex-President said.

He said Jonathan was “just using the stick.”

“He’s doing one aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten,” he added.

But the Presidency, in a reaction to the ex-President’s submission, said Obasanjo’s position on the Boko Haram issue had been contradictory.

Jonathan’s spokesman, Reuben Abati, told The PUNCH that it was surprising that the same Obasanjo who said recently that his presidency applied force when he was confronted with similar situation in Odi, Rives State, has now turned round to accuse Jonathan of applying only the stick against Boko Haram.

“It is surprising. That means the former President contradicted himself. Were you not in this country recently when he said that when he was confronted with a similar issue in Odi, he applied force? Where exactly does he stand on this matter?” Abati said.

He said that contrary to what Obasanjo wanted the world to believe, the Federal Government’s handling of the Boko Haram menace had been purposeful and that a lot of progress had been made.

Also, the Christian Association of Nigeria described the ex-President’s position as unfortunate. The association has repeatedly expressed its opposition to dialogue with Boko Haram.

The Public Relations Officer for CAN in the 19 northern states, Mr. Sunny Oibe, said, “How do you negotiate with a faceless group except Obasanjo wants to tell us that he knows them? This is the same Obasanjo who went to see the family of Boko Haram founder, Yusuf Mohamed and after discussing with them, a senior member of the family was slaughtered. Our stand is that you don’t negotiate with a faceless group.

“President Goodluck Jonathan should not listen to such advice because it is a booby trap set for him to fall on a banana peel. The position of government should be strong on that because if they should negotiate with them, other groups will now emerge and they will now hold government and the people of this country to ransom.”

Spokesperson for the central northern group, Arewa Consultative Forum, Anthony Sani, last week, said on behalf of the group that force was not the solution to the sect’s challenge.

“In terms of security, dialogue still remains the best. It is not the only way out, but I believe it still remains the best,” Sani had said in a reaction to the President’s celebration of the fact that security agencies foiled several bombing attempts during the yuletide.

He added, “It is very heartening to hear President Goodluck Jonathan say the security agents have been foiling attacks by Boko Haram of recent.

“But this does not vitiate the need for dialogue as a viable option. This is because there has been a precedent in which President Umaru Yar’Adua used force and killed 700 members of the sect and their leader but Boko Haram has remained unbowed.”

In the 2013 budget passed by the National Assembly, the Federal Government is to spend N24.1bn on internal security operations for the armed forces. The sum exceeds the N16.4bn allocated to police formations across the country by N7.7bn.

The soldiers’ provision consists of N16.107bn earmarked as “Operations-internal for Armed Forces.”

Members of the Nigerian Armed Forces are currently engaged in several internal security operations, including membership of Joint Task Forces fighting kidnapping in the South- East; oil bunkering in the South-South and Boko Haram in the North.

Obasanjo told the CNN that he had tried to reach out to Boko Haram about one- year-and- a-half ago through a lawyer who was acting as the group’s proxy, and had asked if they had external backing.

He said the lawyer told him that the group was receiving support from other Nigerians who have resources overseas or “other organisations from abroad,” worrying that, “If they had 25 per cent support a year and a half ago, today that support has doubled.”

The ex-President had in 2011 made a widely-reported contact with the sect; and the killing of the in-law to the late leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, barely 24 hours after, was seen as rejection of Obasanjo’s intervention.

Obasanjo said resolving the issue was central to the country’s progress.

“Boko Haram undermines security, and anything that undermines security undermines development, undermines education, undermines health, undermines agriculture and food and nutrition security,” he said.

Boko Haram members have since 2009 launched a violent campaign against the Federal Government, attacking military and police facilities, drinking joints and worship houses in the northern states and Abuja.

The group in 2011 attacked the Police headquarters as well as the United Nations office in the Federal Capital City, killing many people.

The international rights group, Human Rights Watch, in a report late last year had said Boko Haram members had killed more than 2,800 people.

-Punch