For 18 days, President Goodluck Jonathan did not believe that over 200 school girls were abducted in Chibok, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said.
Making the claim in an interview with BloombergTVAfrica at the weekend, Obasanjo also said if President Jonathan had acted immediately he got the information about the abduction, the girls would have been rescued within 24 hours.
Over 200 girls of Government Secondary School Chibok, a town in Borno State, were on the night of April 14, abducted from their hostels by Boko Haram – a religious sect that has been prosecuting a campaign of terror in Northeast Nigeria.
The violent sect had initially threatened to put them up for sale but later offered to have them swapped with some of its members that are in government custody.
President Jonathan had been under increasing pressure from within and outside the country over how his government handled the abduction of the Chibok school girls.
Giving his opinion on how he thinks President Jonathan should have handled the kidnap of the schoolgirls, Obasanjo said, “the President did not believe that those girls were abducted for 18 days. Now if the president got information within 12 hours of the act and reacted immedieately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 28 hours, maximum 48 hours.
“Don’t forget they were almost 300 girls. The logistics for moving them around is something and if action had been taken immedieately, but unfortunately, the president had doubts – is this true or is this a ploy by those who don’t want me to be president again?”
The former President who had been critical of Jonathan’s government, particularly the President’s speculated re-election bid and his handling of the crisis plaguing the Southwest chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also said had his initial recommendations on how to resolve the Boko Haram menace been implemented, the threat now posed by the sect would have been nipped in the bud.
Recalling his efforts to help tackle the Boko Haram problem at its brewing stage, Obasanjo said, “Three years ago, I went to Maiduguri. Actually that was when Boko Haram attacked the UN building in Abuja and they accepted the responsibility. Then I went to Abuja to find out from security leaders, the inspector general of police, the national security adviser, who are these (people)? What are their objectives, their grievances and if we can reach out to them?
“The feeling I got was: ‘Oh! They are just a bunch of riff-raffs, forget about them.’ I then went to the President and said, ‘look, should I take it upon myself to go on fact-finding visit, I want to find out.” And the President was gracious and said I trust your judgement, you can do that. Of course, I reported to the two important principals – the state governor and the president at that time.
“I believe that if action had been taken at that time as I recommended, maybe we would not have got to this stage.”
Responding to a question on the assertion by Nobel Laureaute, Prof. Wole Soyinka, that Boko Haram rose when Zamfara State declared Sharia law in 2001 and 11 other states followed suit, while Obasanjo who was then President did not insist on Nigeria’s secular constitution throughout the country, the former President said, “Nigeria’s constitution is very secular. In fact we use the word multi-religious nation. That’s the word that is in our constitution. You cannot be (more) secular than that. If secular is non-religious, then we’re not secular but if secular is multi-religious then we’re secular.”
Obasanjo’s response was however ambiguous when the interviewer sought to know whether he thinks there should be a continental wide effort to combat insecurity.
“The issue of terrorism must be disaggregated because terrorism generally is a bad thing. But what is the genesis of terrorism in your own country or in your own coummuniy or in your own region? And you have to find a way of dealing with terrorism in your own community, in your own country, and in your own region,” he said.
Also yesterday, Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, while responding to questions on the security situation in the Northeast, alleged that the Borno State government had an organic link with members of the Boko Haram sect.
Maku also alleged that the All Progressive Congress (APC) was taking advantage of the insecurity to advance electoral campaigns ahead of the 2015 general election.
He said some politicians had consistently made statements that divide the country, engage in campaigns that distract the nation and turn the people against the armed forces of Nigeria and had resolved to turn the fight against insurgency to an issue of 2015 election.
“Some people think that the more bombs that exploded, the more they will have chance to come to power come 2015,” he said.
Maku alleged that, “Most of the insurgents were employees of the APC government in Borno State. Muhammed Suleiman (apparently referring to Alhaji Buji Foi, who was Commissioner for Religious Affairs under Governor Alimodu Sherrif) was a commissioner in the government of Borno State, Shekau and others were all connected, so there is an organic link. We must as political parties and politicians stop this grandstanding.”
Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) has announced plans to engage the Federal Government and other stakeholders in a meeting, in a fresh move to rescue the more than 200 girls abducted by insurgents in Chibok, Borno.
The AU Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security, Mrs. Benita Diop, made the disclosure at the close of the Conference of Ministers of Social Development in Addis Ababa weekend.
Diop, who is to lead a delegation to Abuja on Monday, June 2, is to intimate the Federal Government on the “new approach” to rescue the girls, abducted on April 14.
Also, Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS has decided to establish a high-level partnership with Central African States to effectively combat terrorism and has urged member states of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) to pursue the operationalisation efforts of their action plan and cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
This is as the body emphasised the need for ECOWAS member states to strengthen their cooperation particularly in information sharing, in coordinating the efforts of intelligence services and in law enforcement to fight terrorism in the sub region.
Rising from its Extraordinary Session in Accra, Ghana on Friday, it directed the ECOWAS Commission to ensure that all necessary measures were taken to support Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and support the member states in the expeditious implementation of the ECOWAS Counter-Terrorism Strategy.
In the communique made available to THISDAY at the weekend, the Authority expressed support for the measures adopted by the Nigerian Government to end insurgency in Northern and other parts of Nigeria, and urged President Jonathan to remain steadfast in mobilising all the forces in the country and also to pursue national dialogue and reconciliation.
Meanwhile, President Jonathan on Saturday met with the President of Mali, Muhammadou Keita in continuation of consultations to solve the problems of insurgency in Northern Mali and North-eastern Nigeria.
At the end of the meeting held behind closed doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja,
Keita said, “I have come to meet my brother on the issue of insecurity, to see what we can do, that is why I am here.”
Jonathan, Keita and other ECOWAS leaders had met on the same issue in Accra, Ghana on Friday.
The President also met with some clerics from Senegal led by Khalifah Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani Inyass, the grandson of Late Shehu Tijjani Ibrahim Inyass, the founder of the Tijjaniya sect. The clerics came on the invitation of Jonathan.
The group of clerics, numbering about 10, met with the President for about an hour, during which they offered prayers for peace and stability in Nigeria.
Their spokesman, Ahmed Awwalu described the meeting as historic, saying that former Nigerian leaders, Yakubu Gowon and Late JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi had also invited the sect to pray for the country in the past.
“It is a historic visit because it had been done by his father with the then Presidents, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and Gen. Aguyi Ironsi, so history is repeating itself.
“We came for the Maulud of Ibrahim Inyass in Gombe and on our way home, the President requested for a courtesy visit and our Shehu granted it.
“We must come together, all Muslims and non-Muslims to achieve peaceful coexistence; we must pray so that we can all fight this insecurity in the country,” he said.
