Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, yesterday revealed that as president, he once spent two days with some members of the Taliban, during one of his missions on finding solutions to global terror.
The Taliban is an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging insurgency in the country which has killed many people. The group is also known to have massacred and killed many Afghans. From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban held power in Afghanistan and enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, of which the international community and leading Muslims have been highly critical.
The former president who was speaking at the 2016 national summit and 4th international colloquium organised by the Centre for Human Security at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, with the theme,“Human Security, Violent Extremism and Radicalisation: Seeking Sustainable Solutions,”organised as part of activities to mark his 79th birthday, lamented the spread of extremism, and placed the blame for its spread at the doorstep of religious leaders.
According to him, the situation would not have escalated if religious leaders had not failed in their responsibility of inculcating the right values in their followers.
“I went to Syria when I was president of Nigeria. One of the places I was taken to was a refugee camp where those refugees have been since 1948, nothing has been done to them. How do you want their children to think?” he asked.
“In Norway, I met some members of the Taliban. We spent two days together. They are in the second echelon of the leadership. I was told the top ones will not come out and when we listened to them, we are bound to say yes, they can get something better than they were getting,” he stated.
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