Abuja — Professor Ibrahim Gambari, UN Under Secretary-General, has advised the Federal Government to address the Boko Haram crisis with the same zeal deployed in its international peace-keeping operations.

Prof. Gambari said at a forum of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN,  in Abuja that the solution to the Boko Haram crisis required holistic approach and urged government to equally tackle the problem of unemployment.

The diplomat emphasised the need for government to address all sectarian crises in the country considering Nigeria’s status as an international peace-keeper.

“We are trying to bring peace to other parts of Africa but charity must begin at home. We must develop mechanism where we are able to address our own problems that are sometimes similar in nature to those of the problems outside that we try to address.”

Gambari stressed the need for Nigeria to urgently find a lasting solution to its internal security challenges considering its position as a candidate for a permanent seat of the UN Security Council.

He said:“It will be a hell of a shame that we are so good at helping others to find peace if we ourselves are not addressing issues at home that have the capacity of actually undermining our social cohesion, our unity particularly at a time when we are an aspirant for a permanent  member of the UN Security Council.”

Gambari expressed optimism, however, that Nigeria had the capacity to surmount the problems facing it based on its antecedent in dealing with similar volatile issues like the Niger Delta crisis and the Maitatsine crisis of 1980.

He called on government to get to the root cause of the Boko Haram problem and deplore the right mechanism to tackle it just like it did with the Niger Delta crisis and similar other crises of the past.

He stressed the need for government to urgently address the issue of unemployment, education, health and infrastructural development in the country.

He explained that investing in youth employment and infrastructural development would help the country to deal with its expanding population, which he noted might see Nigeria becoming the third most populous nation in the world by 2050.