Obasanjo says Nigeria can win anti-terror war

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday said Nigeria would win the current war against the Boko Haram sect.

He said the nation did not have to wait until all insurgents had been killed before it could claim victory over the terrorists.

Obasanjo spoke with State House correspondents shortly after leading a group of Columbians and others to visit President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said he and members of his delegation had earlier taken it upon themselves to visit Columbia to study how the country had been handling insurgency, which he noted, had been with them for 50 years.

The former President said he decided to intimate Buhari with his findings which he believed could assist the current anti-terror war in the country and also report back to him on the progress being made in his intervention in the crisis in Guinea Bissau.

When asked specifically if the war could be won, Obasanjo said the country could emerge victorious since the civil war was won.

The former President added, "Oh yes. If we won the civil war, we can win this one. But like the Columbian said, we are not waiting until we kill off every insurgent to say we have won.

"I believe that once the military has the upper hand, other measures that have to be taken will be put in place.

"There will be measures of socio-economic development, education, employment.

"All that has to go into the process of eventually winning the war and saying 'Uhuru’.”

When further asked if the war could be won within the three months deadline given the military by the President, Obasanjo said Buhari's deadline was not cast in stone.

He said it was normal for the President to set a target for the military.

Obasanjo said, "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 the upper hand, we move on and do other things."

When asked what specific lessons to be learnt from the insurgency in Colombia, Obasanjo replied, "The specific thing is that they have been fighting insurgency for 50 years. They celebrated their 50 years of existence in May last year; in fact, we went there in June.

"So, 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?"

He said Buhari showed interest in their presentation on the Columbia experience.

"He was interested. You know 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," he added.

On the Guinea Bissau crisis, Obasanjo expressed the hope that a government would be put in place latest by Tuesday (today).

This, he said, was the fallout of his visit to the country over the weekend.

"The second aspect of my visit was the work that both the President and the ECOWAS gave me in Guinea Bissau.

"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.

"When I was there, I praised the restraint of the general public and particularly the military because the military leaders hold me that for two months, they have not gotten salary. They could not even buy fuel into military vehicles and yet they continue to maintain restraints.

"That cannot go on forever. So, I hope that the actions that we have taken over the weekend (I was there on Friday morning and I left early morning of Sunday), we might be in the process of putting that behind us," he added.