President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Peter Esele, yesterday said that the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo should be appointed to lead the ‘carrot approach’ aspect, which is the negotiation with the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
It would be recalled that Obasanjo, in an interview on CNN earlier in the week, said Jonathan administration has not been reaching out enough to stop the Boko Haram sect, and canvassed for what he tagged ‘carrot-and-stick’ strategy to address the sect’s menace.
According to the two time president, Jonathan has been applying less of dialogue and more of force in solving the Boko Haram issue.
He said: To deal with a group like that, you need a carrot and stick. The carrot is finding out how to reach out to them.
“When you try to reach out to them and they are not amenable to being reached out to, you have to use the stick,” the ex-President had said.
However, while sharing in Obasanjo’s view, the TUC leader said the suggested approach was a welcome development if it would restore back to the country.
Esele said that president Jonathan should appoint Obasanjo to lead the negotiation with Boko Haram, but should also adopt the stick method if the group is unwilling to negotiate.
According to him, Obasanjo, as a man of peace, will gladly accept the offer, especially when it is a call to public service and one that may lead to lasting peace, which has eluded Nigeria in recent times.
His words: “It is our hope that we should have lasting peace in Nigeria and we believe that there should be somebody to talk to Boko Haram.
“I think I will make things easy if I was the president, I will just say, ‘Obasanjo, you now be the one to lead the negotiation’, which is the carrot approach, while the president will now be the one in charge of the stick method.
“He should get himself involved in the negotiation and report to the president. I think that Obasanjo himself will want peace as a former president.
“And once the president of a country calls on anyone to serve the nation, there is nobody who will not want to heed the call”, he said.
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