Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday in Benin, the Edo State capi­tal, advocated that educa­tion remained the most potent solution to the Boko Haram scourge.
He made the recommen­dation while speaking on the topic: “Effective Education­al System : A Panacea for Societal Development and Transformation”, during the 11th Convocation Lecture of the Benson Idahosa Uni­versity (BIU) in Benin.
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 of their wards.
According to Chief Obasanjo, who carpeted religious leaders who had abandoned preaching toler­ance and peace to violence and extremism, said, for the war on Boko Haram to be won irrespective of the military onslaught, there was need for education to be used as a tool.
“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 morale education, if we are able to tackle Boko Haram with education in our schools, both in 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 in 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 Southwest, it was 79 per cent that are educated, in the Southeast, it is about 78 per cent, in the Northeast, 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.”