Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo has said the war military will only gain an upper hand against Boko Haram and other insurgents in the North East of Nigeria by December and not totally end insurgency by the deadline set by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He opined thus in an interview he granted recently and published in today’s Punch.
When asked about his view on Boko Haram war deadline, Obasanjo said:
“I’ve talked about that. You have to have an objective, otherwise, if you say go, and you don’t an objective… An objective is not cast in concrete. Look, I want you to finish a job in two days though you know it could take probably four or five days, but you must give an objective. I believe that what the President will get and which he knows he can get, is that he can get the upper hand; the military will get the upper hand over Boko Haram and of course, I think we are working towards that. But we will not get the end of Boko Haram in three months or in six months. And even when you get the upper hand militarily, you have to do what you have to do – the socio-economic aspect.”
In recent days President Buhari and most military leaders have been upbeat about chances of winning the war against Boko Haram by December.
Read the full lenght interview in which Obasanjo also bares spoke on on pro-Biafra agitations, among other issues here