OBASANJO: EDUCATION IS THE STARTING POINT FOR SOLVING BOKO HARAM

Those who say that Boko Haram is a menace waiting to happen are evidently correct. Some people have blamed the governments of the zone at the state and local government levels for the unacceptable socio-economic situation in the North-East. Of course, they must accept part of the responsibility.

But, I would rather say it is a collective responsibility and, collectively, the situation must be addressed and redressed. The beginning of redressing the situation is education. I appreciated the importance of education in human development, state and nation-building, national development, employment generation, wealth creation, national unity, security and stability.

When I had the opportunity as both military Head of State and elected President, I paid particular attention to education nationally through Universal Primary Education (UPE) as military Head of State, and Universal Basic Education (UBE) as President.

In the first case, it was abandoned by the successor regime and in the second case, some states went to the Supreme Court to secure order for the Federal Government not to participate in basic education.

It was claimed that constitutionally, it is the preserve of states and local governments and some of them did not live up to their responsibility.If we do not collectively invest in primary education, how can we address the situation?

The counterpart funding instituted as a legitimate means of intervening by the Federal Government in basic education turned out not to be adequately supervised by the successor regime and became a veritable source of corruption at the state level and between the Federal and the State officials.

And yet, the cost of primary education to the states has gone up with the policy of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as minimum qualification for teachers in primary schools. With that policy and closure of Teacher Training Colleges not certified for NCE, there is great shortage of primary school teachers in many parts of the country but particularly in the North.

This is a situation that cannot be rectified by states and local governments alone.

I have never been against application of force in dealing with insecurity situation, but we must understand the genesis, the content and the context of each situation to determine when, where, how and what quantum of force to apply and what amount and type of carrot to feed in.