Boko Haram Obasanjo prescribes education as solution to insurgency

"Even if we defeat Boko Haram on the battle front, we need education to sustain the victory," says former President Olusegun Obasanjo while arguing that insurgency can only be ended through an effective educational system.

A students' hostel in Yobe state destroyed in a Boko Haram gun and explosives attack. Aminu Abubakar/AFP/Getty Images 

A School destroyed by Boko Haram in Yobe 

General Olusegun Obasanjo Africa Progress Panel 

Nigeria can only end the Boko Haram insurgency through an effective educational system, says former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Speaking last Friday at the 11th Convocation Lecture of the Benson Idahosa University(BIU), Benin, Edo state, Obasanjo said education remains the most effective solution.

In his lecture on the topic: 'Effective Educational System: A panacea for Societal Development and Transformation”, the former President said the military approach must be supported with the education.

"Even if we defeat Boko Haram on the battle front, we need education to sustain the victory," Obasanjo said.

“If we are able to tackle Boko Haram with education in our schools, both in the social media that they use, we will dilute their messages and positively win their hearts and others who have been swayed by the Jihadists messages.

“To succeed with counter messages, we need to be more appealing and truthful and as intense as those of Boko Haram if not more."

Obasanjo said a survey of education across the six geo-political zones of the country in 2010 had shown that the insurgency was only 'waiting to happen'.

"In 2010 there was a survey of education in Nigeria and among the six geopolitical zones; in the south west, it was 79 percent that are educated, in the south east, it is about 78 percent in the northeast, where Boko Haram dominates, it is 19 percent and that is one of the reasons people believe that Boko Haram was a menace waiting to happen," he added.

He called for concerted efforts to correct the situation.

“We have to reverse that trend, maybe the situation has even gone worse in the last five years because people have moved out of school, some schools have been destroyed and we cannot fold our arms and say it is up to the north east, it is up to all of us in Nigeria, we have to do what should be done to bring parity in the area of education across the length and breadth of the country,” Obasanjo said."

The Boko Haram insurgency, which has deliberately targeted schools, has damaged the educational sector of the entire North East region.