Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state has accused former governor of the State, Ali Modu-Sheriff, as well as former President Goodluck Jonathan of not doing enough to nip the Boko Haram insurgency in the bud before it became the monster that has continued to plague the state.

Shettima, who was the keynote speaker at the 2017 Murtala Muhammed memorial lecture in Abuja on Monday, blamed Modu-Sheriff for allowing his ego get in the way and failing to effectively manage the early warning signs that would eventually lead to a full blown insurgency.

He said: “I have restrained myself from blaming the previous government for the emergence of Boko Haram, but the fact of the matter is that Ali Modu Sheriff, the former governor, allowed his ego to stand in the way of a dispute between the army and followers of Mohammed Yusuf.”

“Ali Modu Sheriff mismanaged the crisis by ignoring the situation, and he played into the hands of the insurgents,” Shettima added.

The Borno State Governor also said that former President Jonathan did not fully understand the Boko Haram crisis until March 2013, even though the insurgency was already intense as at 2011 when Jonathan‎ began his term as president.

He noted that various‎ conspiracy theories prevented the then president from taking proactive measures to end the crisis, including insinuations that Boko Haram was being sponsored by the northerners to destabilise the government.

“I think before President Jonathan’s fact-finding mission, he didn’t understand the Boko Haram crisis until March 2013‎,” Shettima said.‎

The Governor pointed out that the damages so far suffered by States in the North East region would require concerted efforts from all and sundry to rebuild.

According to him it would require in excess of $9 billion to get the North East to its former state before the Boko Haram.