Boko Haram: Obasanjo leads Colombian security experts to Buhari

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday led a team of Columbian security experts to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari to share their professional experience in combating terror.

Obasanjo, told journalists at the Presidential Villa after meeting with the President, that Nigeria needs to learn how Colombia have survived insurgency for more than fifty years.

He said as a lesson learnt from Columbia “we want to see what has kept them going, what has kept insurgency going? What has made the government of Columbia to make three attempts to seek peace, to end the war and insurgency and they failed. What is the new efforts that they are making? How likely are those new efforts going to succeed?.

Obasanjo said President gave the team a listening good audience adding that “one thing you can say about the President is that he is anxious to learn and he has listening ears. Of course, nobody knows it all. A good leader must seek every opportunity to learn and to put what he learns into practice”.

The former President said he also briefed President Buhari on his assignment as special envoy to Guinea Bissua.
“The last time, we were able to resolve all the issues of getting a new Prime Minister. This time, we had also been able to resolve the issue of now forming a government.
“If nothing intervenes, I believe between today and tomorrow, a new government will be in place in Guinea Bissau. They have been without government for almost two months” he said.

Asked to speak on possibility of the Nigeran Armed Forces not defeating Boko Haram at the end of the three months deadline issued to them, he said that the deadline was not cast on stones but merely to encourage them to crush the sect.

“The president must give a target. When you give somebody a target, you give him something to aspire to, giving him an objective. Target is not cast in stone. I believe that if you are talking of getting the upper hand, gradually, we are getting the upper hand. We are not there yet but we are getting close. And once we are getting upper hand, we move on and do other things” he said.

Elizabeth Archibong