United States President, Barak Obama has identified responsive leadership and good governance as the ultimate panacea to terrorism challenges in Nigeria and some other African countries.
Speaking in South Africa during his latest visit to Africa, Obama answered questions on a wide range of issues, such as failure of African governments to appropriately educate their youths.
“In terms of human capital and young people, I think the greatest investment any country can make, not just an African country, is educating its youth and providing them with the skill to compete in a highly technological, advanced world economy, he said.”
“Countries that do not do that well will not succeed. At “There are some excellent plans that sometimes we are doing country by country depending on the country plan. But this is a scenario where I would like to get input from young people in terms of what they think will work.”
However, he expressed the willingness of U.S. to collaborate with Nigeria in training its teachers and as well incorporating the use of technology in the education system.
“Across board we are having a rethink in education and work force training,” he said. “And one of the things we want to do is to partner with a country like Nigeria and identify ways that we can provide direct value added, whether it is in helping to train teachers or helping to incorporate technology into the education process”
On terrorism, he noted that although his administration recorded considerable progress in hacking down principal protagonists of terrorism such as Osama Bin Laden, the problem continues to assume a menacing outlook in Nigeria and other African countries.
His words: “There is no doubt in the progress we have made in dealing with some extremist groups, for example core Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. They have been greatly diminished.
“What is also true is that in some ways the problem has also metastasized, we have more regional terrorist organisations like Boko Haram in Nigeria espousing an extremist ideology, showing no regard for human life. While they do not have a transnational capacity like the other organisations they are doing great harm in Africa and in the Middle East and in South Asia.”
Assessing the situation, he said: “There is an upsurge of terrorist groups in countries that are not delivering for their people and where sources of conflict and underlining frustrations that have not been adequately dealt with.
“We have to build institutions a lot of what we talked about in terms of responsiveness, governance and democracy. Those things become defence mechanisms against terrorism, they are the most important defence against terrorism. Governments must give people opportunity, education and resolve conflicts through regular democratic processes, the less likely they are to take root.”
