TheCable

Sean Hoy, the Irish high commissioner to Nigeria, says “external forces” took advantage of the Boko Haram crisis in the north-east.

He said the failure of the country to effectively tackle the challenge when it first manifested created room for others — “including bandits and external people” — to manipulate it.

Hoy said this on Thursday while delivering a lecture at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna, on the theme, ‘Road to peace – lessons from the Northern Ireland peace process’.

The envoy said the Boko Haram crisis would not have deteriorated if it was well managed at the onset, noting that “the longer you leave something, the more complex it becomes”.

He said: “In 2009, Nigerians knew who the Boko Haram actors were in Borno; you knew who to talk to, but that did not happen.

“Now, the vacuum has been taken over by others, including bandits and external people who are not Nigerians at all and it became complex.

“The current conflict in the north-east arguably began when a local conflict within Borno state, which could have been addressed better at that time was not well handled, most of us will agree with that.

“The conflict now spread to the entire region. It has become complex and created vacuum for others to exploit. These external forces driven by wider agendas are keen to manipulate local unrest.”

He, however, added that Nigeria could still take a clue from how Northern Ireland handled its own challenges.

“The Nigerian situation [is] more complex than that of Northern Ireland but (that) does not mean that nothing should be done about them,” Hoy said.