Following the measures to tackle insecurity across Nigeria, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has insisted that fighting insecurity to a standstill requires a “carrot” and “stick” approach.
According to reports, he disclosed this on Wednesday at his Penthouse residence within Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while playing host to members of Tiv Professionals’ Group led by Prof. Zacharys Anger Gundu.
According to him, “Some people are still reaching out, and hoping that lives can still be saved”. “But a situation whereby anybody thinks paying ransom is the way out, that person is folly”. “This is because when you pay ransom, you encourage.”
He added that, “But if you are not going to pay ransom, you must have the means to deal heavily with it. You must have the stick to deal with it. Government has always paid ransom. Not only this government, even during (Goodluck) Jonathan (administration). They paid ransom, but they denied it.”
Commenting on the forthcoming 2023 general election the former president said, “I do believe that whatever else we do we have to make the year 2023 a watershed for Nigeria“.
“The year 2023 should give us the beginning of emergence of a new federation or feeling that the rot continues, and then, we are going to be sliding back to a grand dissolution. God forbid.”
He also disclosed that those calling for division in Nigeria didn’t think about the interest of the minority ethnic groups.
He stated that, “And he would say to me if the Yoruba can stand as a country, if the Igbo can stand as a country, if the Hausa/Fulani can stand as a country, if you, major tribes, decide to break up from the country, where do you want the minority ethnic groups to stand? many Nigerians don’t know about, unfortunately.”
“Where do we want those minor groups to stand? Wherever they stand, now they are by virtue of Nigeria’s present situation a little bit protected. But if Nigeria breaks up and they are in a smaller country, they will be oppressed. They will always be exterminated. Are we thinking of that?” He added.
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