(CNN) -- Former Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo has said more could be done to reach out to the
militant Islamist group Boko Haram to find out what leads it to carry
out acts of violence.
In an interview with CNN, Obasanjo
suggested the current government should adopt a dual-track approach
rather than just cracking down on the group.
"To deal with a group like that, you
need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to
them," he said. "When you try to reach out to them and they are not
amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick."
Obasanjo said President Goodluck
Jonathan was "just using the stick" in his efforts. "He's doing one
aspect of it well, but the other aspect must not be forgotten."
The Islamist militants, who operate
chiefly in Nigeria's restive north, have carried out numerous deadly
attacks on mosques, churches and businesses and are suspected
of having
links to al Qaeda.
Obasanjo said he had tried to reach out
to Boko Haram about a year and a half ago through a lawyer who was
acting as the group's proxy, and had asked if they had external backing.
The lawyer told him that the group was
receiving support from other Nigerians who have resources overseas or
"other organizations from abroad," Obasanjo said.
"If they had 25% support a year and a half ago, today that support has doubled," the former president said.
Analysts suggest that reaching out to
Boko Haram may be increasingly difficult because the group has split
into different factions, some with a domestic focus and others with a
more pan-jihadi approach.
Resolving the issue is key to Nigeria's
progress, according to Obasanjo, who now heads an eponymous foundation
that is working to promote human security across Africa.
"Boko Haram undermines security, and
anything that undermines security undermines development, undermines
education, undermines health, undermines agriculture and food and
nutrition security," he said.
International rights group Human Rights Watch says Boko Haram has killed more than 2,800 people.
In a report published late last year,
Amnesty International condemned the increasingly brutal attacks carried
out by Boko Haram since 2009, but said Nigeria's security forces "have
perpetrated serious human rights violations" in response. A military
spokesman rejected the allegations.
The militant group, whose name means
"Western education is forbidden," is fighting to impose a strict version
of Sharia law in the northern part of the country.
In the past, the group attacked other Muslims it felt were on an immoral path, but it has increasingly killed Christians.
The U.S. State Department has accused
Boko Haram of attacking mosques and churches to incite tensions between
the two religious groups, hoping to drive a wedge between them. It has
condemned some of the group's leaders for alleged ties to al Qaeda.
Nigeria has almost equal numbers of
Christian and Muslims, with the south predominantly Christian. Boko
Haram and other Muslim groups say the north has been starved of
resources and marginalized by the government of Jonathan, a Christian.
However, despite the ongoing challenges
the country faces, Obasanjo said he does not foresee Nigeria ever
splitting in two, into north and south.
"We in Nigeria now know that it would cost us much more to break up than it will cost us to come together," he said.
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