Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is insisting that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan is to blame for the shoddy handling of the Chibok girls abduction in April 2014. While speaking in a new book titled, “Against The Run of Play”, written by the Chairman of ThisDay Editorial Board, Olusegun Adeniyi, Nigeria's former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, disclosed that the immediate past President, Goodluck Jonathan is to blame for the shoddy handling of the Chibok girls abduction in April 2014.
According to the Ogun state elder statesman and influential politician, the poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency was one of the reasons he opposed Jonathan’s return because a continuation of the administration could endanger the country.
He said; “Jonathan and his people turned Boko Haram into an industry for making money. Rather than seek for solution, Boko Haram became an ATM machine for taking money out of the treasury.
“Take the issue of Chibok tragedy. If he had acted within the first 48 hours, they would have found most of the girls.
“The CAN Chairman of the local chapter in Chibok was here to see me and he explained how they were helpless with no reaction from the authorities for several days.”
Obasanjo clarified that he has no personal grudges against Jonathan except that it was based on certain principles he was not ready to compromise.
He said: “My decision was based on what would be for the good of Nigeria and since I didn’t consider Jonathan good enough, I told him to his face. What would I be afraid of?”
The ex-President accused Jonathan of seeing the world and attending to state matters within the prism of Ijaw politics or nationalism.
He said: “I once asked him (Jonathan), ‘What is this Ijaw thing all about? Can the Ijaw people make you President?’
“I remember when he granted pardon to Alamieyeseigha and it became an international embarrassment, I also asked him, ‘Why did you do it? He started by offering the lame excuse that it was a Council of State decision before I reminded him that Council of State was merely advisory and that the decision was his.
“After a while, he said if I was at the meeting, he probably could have acted differently because nobody opposed it. I then counseled him on what he could do to address the problem. But either because he didn’t have the courage to broach the issue with Alamieyeseigha or he didn’t think it was important, he did nothing afterwards.”
He admitted not knowing Jonathan well enough before taking a political bet on him, adding that “But then you really cannot know people until you give them power and responsibility. That is when you will gauge their capacity.”
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