Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the the people of South-South Nigeria will live with the effect, whether positive or negative, of the years of Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency for years to come.
Obasanjo while admitting that he helped in getting Jonathan to the position, washed his hands off whatever he eventually did with the position.
He spoke during the 11th Convocation lecture of the Benson Idahosa University (BIU), in Benin City, Edo State capital on Friday.
The former president also dwelt on the festering Boko Haram scourge, saying that education remained the most potent solution to the scourge of boko haram.
He said, “I have also said that you can help anybody to get a job but you cannot help him to do it. Let us get it clear, there is nobody who has got into any position who has not been helped by one person or more than one person. To become Nigeria’s head of state, it was first of all my performance in the war front. Now if General Gowon had not sent me to the war front, you won’t know whether I can perform or cannot perform. Now, he sent me to the war front, I thank him for it and because I performed we shared the credit. If I had failed, Gowon would not have shared the credit, he would not have shared the condemnation with me, I would have been alone.
“ Yes as I have said, I believe that opportunity that afforded itself in 2010 to somebody from the minority to on his own steam, become the president of Nigeria. He should never have lost the opportunity but what he did with it was entirely up to him and don’t forget, what he did or did not do with it, will reflect for a long time on that part of the country and don’t take that lightly. What he did or did not do with it will reflect for a long time on the part of the country but nobody will be there who will not be helped but we voted for him, I was only one of the 18 million voters who voted for him”
Obasanjo spoke on the ‘Effective Educational System: A panacea for Societal Development and Transformation.’
The former president used the opportunity to speak on the nexus between education and the insurgency in the Northeast and the emerging challenge of social media to parents.
He condemned the negative effect of social media on students, pupils and even parents and teachers who he said are fast losing the moral grip on their wards. For him, the parents have an onerous task of ensuring that the new media does not have negative effects on their wards.
On Boko Haram, Obasanjo does not believe that only military onslaught will bring lasting solutions to the insurgency.
He there was the need for education to be used as a tool just as he carpeted religious leaders who had abandoned preaching tolerance and peace for violence and extremism
He said, “Education is a moral enterprise which we need to re-engage, The issue of boko haram, President Buhari should also tackle it from the angle of moral education. If we are able to tackle boko haram with education in our schools, 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. The capacity of all teachers would be strengthened to deliver such messages; morning and afternoon assemblies of our primary and secondary schools should have a strong dose of such messages, our airwaves and social media should also be saturated with such positive messages even if we defeat Boko Haram on the battle front, we need education to sustain the victory.
“ Let me give you an insight, in 2010 there was a survey of education in Nigeria and among the six geo political zones; in the south west, it was 79 per cent that are educated, in the south east, it is about 78 per cent in the north east, where boko haram dominates, it is 19 per cent and that is one of the reasons people believe that boko haram was a menace waiting to happen and it doesn’t matter what we do, 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.”
The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Ernest Izevbigie, had in his opening address, said 871 students would graduate from the school today out of which 86 were post graduate graduants and 785, first degree graduates.
