Former Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell has condemned United States President Barrack Obama for being biased towards President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration in Nigeria.
Reacting to Nigeria’s issues yesterday, the former United States envoy said that there was an apparent United States? bias toward President Jonathan’s government in Abuja and support for a Nigerian ‘war on terror’ risks alienating Nigeria’s Muslims.
On Boko Haram, Ambassador John campbell said that the group had no charismatic leader,? stressing that nobody has ever met its purported ‘spokesmen. “It appears to have no politburo, and it has issued no definitive manifesto. Yet, the Abuja government – and much of the domestic and international media -? assigns responsibility to it for virtually every violent episode in northern Nigeria, as Prof. Herskovits observes.” he also noted.
His words: “The violence in northern Nigeria is real, horrific, and growing. But, rather than thinking about Boko Haram as a terrorist organization to be countered through traditional security measures, perhaps it would be more realistic to view it as a grass-roots revolt with many players and motivations and little coherence in the context of a political system that has done little to address poverty and promote social justice”.
“No doubt it includes criminal elements, and politicians will seek to exploit the disaffection associated with it to advance their own agendas.
But that does not make it an organization appropriate for a terrorist list.”
Campbell also urged the federal government to view Boko Haram as a political issue reflecting regional grievances, rather than exclusively as a security challenge.