Obasanjo, who spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, said Nigeria needs to learn how Colombia had survived insurgency for more than 50 years.
He said: “Let me just let you know that I have come to see the President for two reasons. The first one is the one you have just seen. I brought a delegation of those of us who visited Colombia last year under the auspices of a foundation which I am the chairman.
“We went to Colombia to see how all the Colombian authorities were handling the issue of insurgency which had been with them for more than 50 years.
“As a result of that visit and the experience we had, a book was produced and I said to them that it will be interesting for us in Nigeria to learn as much as we can learn from the experience of Colombia.”
On the specific lessons Nigeria can learn from Colombia, he said: “The specific thing is that they have been fighting insurgency for 50 years. They celebrated their 50 years of existence in May last year, in fact, we went there in June. So, we want to see what has kept them going, what has kept insurgency going? What has made the government of Colombia to make three attempts to seek peace, to end the war and insurgency and they failed. What are the new efforts that they are making? How likely are those new efforts going to succeed?”
He said President Buhari was interested in the presentation made to him.
“He was interested. You know that one thing you can say about the President is that he is anxious to learn and he has listening ears. Of course, nobody knows it all. A good leader must seek every opportunity to learn and to put what he learns into practice,” Obasanjo stated.
Optimistic that Nigeria can win the war against terrorism, he said that Nigeria can declare winning the war without killing all the insurgents.
He said: “Oh yes. If we won the civil war, we can win this one. But like the Colombian said, we are not waiting until we kill all the insurgents to say we have won.
“I believe that once the military has the upper hand, other measures that have to be taken will be put in place.”
The Nation.
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