Former
United States President Bill Clinton on Tuesday canvassed ways
through which Nigeria could effectively deal with Boko Haram insurgency
and other forms of insecurity in the country.
Among
the ideas suggested by him are poverty eradication, education, equitable
distribution of wealth and job creation for the nation’s
teeming unemployed graduates.
Clinton,
at Thisday Newspapers awards in Abeokuta, Ogun
State, also flayed what he described as Nigeria’s
failure to efficiently manage and maximise her oil and human
resources for the benefit of all.
Nigeria,
he argued, would do better if her resources
were efficiently managed by her leaders.
He
said one of the ways the nation could eradicate her high level of poverty,
especially in the North, was to have powerful state and local
governments.
Clinton,
who added that programmes to check Boko Haram violence and
insecurity were desirious, advised that deliberate
efforts should be made by the three tiers of government to give “economic
opportunities” to Nigerians lagging behind .
“You
have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have it,”
he said, “You have all these political problems — and now
violence — that appear to be rooted in religious differences and all the
rhetoric of the Boko Harams and others, but the truth is the poverty rate in
the North is three times of what it is in Lagos. ”
He
said that poverty remained the main driver for the attacks by Boko Haram and
needed to be addressed by strong local and Federal Government programmes.
Pointing
out that “too much inequality” was capable of limiting growth and
opportunities among the citizens of a country, he stressed that a
redistribution of wealth would go a long way in addressing the violence
and insecurity in Nigeria.
The
former President said, “You have about three big challenges. First of
all, like 90 per cent of the countries who have one big resource, you have a
number of ways with your own money. It shows you have different ways. Now
you are at least not wasting the natural gas, you are developing and selling it
through the pipelines. You have to do better job of managing the natural
resources.
“Secondly,
you have to somehow bring economic opportunities to the people who don’t have.
This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. In almost every place in the world,
prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas. So you have all
these political problems for now even violence .
“There
appears to be political and religious differences and now, the rhetoric
of the Boko Haram and all that. You have to have both powerful state and
local governments and a national policy that work together.
“If
you just keep trying to divide the power if you will, into loosening strategy,
you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help share the
prosperity.”
He
advised that education should be used as a tool to tackle poverty among
Nigerians, saying that if citizens were well educated, they would be
economically empowered and hence have less inclination towards violence.
Clinton
said governments at all levels needed to tackle graduate unemployment
which, according to him, is as a source of instability across the
world.
He
said Nigeria, which earns billions of dollars from her oil
industry and is a major supplier to the US, must not take a “divide the
pie” approach towards attacking poverty.
“It’s
a losing strategy,” the former President said. “You have to figure out a way to
have a strategy that will have shared prosperity.”
Boko
Haram killed at least 792 people last year in Nigeria, according to an Associated
Press count.
A
group, Ansaru, which is believed to be a splinter group from
Boko Haram, on Monday claimed the kidnappings of seven foreigners — a
British , a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino in
northern Cameroon.
Analysts
say that poverty, despite decades of military rule by leaders from the North,
coupled with a lack of formal education has driven the region’s exploding youth
population toward extremism.
On
agriculture, the former US President called on Nigeria and other African
countries to maximise the potential of small farmers rather than
dabbling in mechanised and commercial agriculture.
This,
he said, would ensure food security in the continent.
Also
speaking on the occasion, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, said that early
contact of the people of the state with the Christian missionaries gave it a
head start in Western education.
“We
have the largest number of higher institutions in Nigeria. We believe education
is the key to the fulfillment of our mandate. Indeed, educated people are
easily governed,” he said.
Fifteen
teachers and ex-teachers from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions from
across the country were honoured with the Thisday Awards of N2m each. The
Thisday Lifetime Awards were also given to others, including prominent
industrialists, Oba Otudeko and Chief Razaq Okoya as well as the Osile of
Oke-Ona Egba, Oba Adedapo Tejuosho.
Amosun
and his Delta State counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, also won awards.
Amongst
the dignitaries who attended the event were former President
Olusegun Obasanjo; the Chairman of Punch Nigeria Limited, Mr. Wale Aboderin;
the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle; the
Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo; a former Governor
of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba; Publisher of Vanguard Newspapers,
Mr. Sam Amuka-Pemu; a former Vice- President of the World Bank, Oby
Ezekwesili; Founding Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank, Mr. Fola
Adeola; ex-Managing Director, Daily Times of Nigeria, Dr. Yemi
Ogunbiyi; and Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye.
PUNCH
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