Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo swiftly dealt with the emergence of Boko Haram due to decisive leadership and strong political will.
Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday during a visit by stakeholders from Kogi East Senatorial District, led by former Kogi State Deputy Governor Simon Achuba, Atiku recalled how Boko Haram first surfaced in Yobe State in 2002 while he was in office.
In a video shared on his Facebook page, Atiku recounted that President Obasanjo consulted him at the time, and together they decided to issue firm orders to Nigeria’s security chiefs.
“When Boko Haram started in Yobe in 2002, the president called me and asked, ‘VP, what do we do about this?’ I told him, ‘Let’s summon the Service Chiefs, give them a deadline to end it, or they step aside.’ That same day, he gave them marching orders. Within weeks, the insurgency was crushed and didn’t resurface until after we left office,” Atiku said.
He criticized subsequent governments for failing to act with similar urgency, blaming Nigeria’s prolonged insecurity on a lack of political resolve.
“There’s been a clear failure of leadership. How can leaders remain indifferent while citizens are being killed? That is the height of irresponsibility,” he stated.
Atiku served as Vice President from 1999 to 2007 under President Obasanjo, during Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in the Fourth Republic.