FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had not been reaching out enough to the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, and canvassed what he described as a “carrot-and-stick” strategy to address the sect’s menace.
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.
