Obasanjo in U.S., says ‘Since Independence, Nigeria has never been divided as today, not even during Civil War’

Again, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken the Federal Government to the cleaners.
Speaking on the state of insecurity in the country, the former president, who addressed a large audience at the President Woodrow Wilson Centre, Washington D.C., the United States (U.S) on the topic: ‘Managing Nigeria’s Diversity Amidst Rising Ethno-religious Tensions’, declared: “Since independence, Nigeria has never been divided as today, not even during the Civil War. This is due to mismanagement of diversity and poor leadership”.
He also said during his tenure as civilian president, he never
received intelligence reports from the U.S. about the discovery of Nigerians in Al-qaeda terrorist group.
Obasanjo was responding to a question from U.S.-based international human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe.
The former president said that he never received any such intelligence about Afghanistan but that he knew Nigerians were massively recruited in Libya and other countries as well.
Obasanjo also lamented that Libya is now practically a failed state and “will be a problem to all of us”.
He accused the present leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari of hypocrisy, urging Nigerians in the Diaspora not to leave the country alone.
“If you stand by, you’re an accomplice to evil”.
He also endorsed the call by a fellow panelist and former U.S. Congressman, Frank Wolf, for a U.S. Special Envoy on Nigeria/Lake Chad.
He urged leaders not to misuse powers given to them by the people through the ballot.
“Maybe Nigeria would not be there today if I had rolled out tanks as I was petitioned to do over the sharia issue. I called the Governor of Katsina State then about the woman to be stoned to death for adultery. He said I should leave it to him. Her death sentence was appealed and it never happened”.
On Boko Haram, he declared that when he first inquired from intermediaries about external support for the group in 2011, he was informed that it was just about 10-15% “as much of their funding was local then”.
However upon recent inquiry, Obasanjo said he was told “external support for Boko Haram is now 50%”.
He called for U.S. sanctions on those who mismanage Africa’s diversity and elections which he identified as “two of the top three African leadership challenges”.