Obasanjo: How to combat insurgency

Obasanjo, his wife, Amosun and his wife

Nigeria’s  former President,Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has called on the  international community  to step up  plans in combating the fight against  insurgency throughout the world.

He also suggested   the deployment  of technology to fight violent extremism in the world, adding that, if the insurgent groups can develop technology to achieve their cause, it’s imperative to adopt the same method to neutralise them.

The retired Army General said this on Saturday during his 79th birthday celebration held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), IBB Boulevard,Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital.

Obasanjo who traced insurgency  to lack of fairness and justice  the world over, blamed institutions, including religious bodies for failing in their responsibilities towards having a safer society.

 “The world is interested on what can be done to stem the tide and I think what we did yesterday, we made our own contribution in a way that we believe will serve our country, serve our sub-region West Africa, our region of Africa and indeed, the world we live in.

“I summarize that the solution lies in six areas; at home, in the community, in the church and mosque, in the schools/colleges, in the local, state and federal government and in the international community, at each of these, we do things that we should not do and we leave undone what we should do.

“Therefore, people have or they see perceived injustice or perceived grievances and they try to react but as I said, when you have to treat violent extremism and radicalization as an issue, then, it costs you more.

“What we should do which will be cost effective, wise and cheaper is to prevent and if we do what we should do at all those areas, we should be able to prevent.

“One of the things we now have to take seriously is technology, because technology impacts on our daily life, it’s built to our homes, it’s in our pocket and if those who want to do anything to make life unbearable for us in terms of security, then we must also use technology as the antidote and the means by which we can ward off what they may want to do against us”, the former President advised.

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