Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the protests that held after the Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014, were only politically motivated and just an action by the opposition to use the opportunity to further stain the cloak of his administration.

He said this in his book, “My Transition Hours’ launched on Tuesday, November 20, 2018.

He wrote, “My mind was ravaged by a torrent of questions: Where were the school matrons, security guards, teachers and the principal?” (pg 29)

“As if on cue, protests broke out within days. They were neatly choreographed and nicely distributed around the country, popping up like poxes on a body infested with chicken pox…at the heart of the protests was a certain degree of premeditation.”

“The swiftness of the protests and its organisation was just a matter of politicians seizing a rare opportunity to politicise an unfortunate incident.” (pg 30).

He said he summoned the relevant security agents and other stakeholders and all of them had no clue about the kidnap but political opponents did not care.

“This is what defines the folly of those who questioned our pace and commitment. A better word would be gambit; a calculated move to place the administration in the direct path of national and global odium. To an extent, it worked especially with those who would applaud anything against the Jonathan administration.” (pg 30)

He added that the people of Chibok were not part of the protests but were interested in working with his government to secure the release of the girls and “that was of some import” but Western media continued to say things against his administration.

“They made it a point that they were only interested in regime change. If the Jonathan administration goes and the opposition comes, the security challenges posed by Boko Haram will vanish, the Chibok girls will be rescued and the country will be better off, it was echoed. Of course, it was a deliberate attempt to distort history and build faulty premises to worsen Nigeria’s future.”

Then just like he said the then President of the United States, Barack Obama influenced the country’s election in 2015, he said they also refused security support for the rescue of the Chibok girls.

“The tactical attacks by the Obama administration were many. They refused to provide any real military backing or equipment to aid the rescue of the Chibok girls, citing the Leahy Law which they claimed prevented them from supporting any military that was engaged in human rights abuses, but this law did not stop them from assisting the armed forces of Nigeria’s neighbours who had been accused of serious human rights violations.” (pg 33).

He added, “The criticism over alleged slow response was one of those absurd injections into the discourse… My administration was not slow in responding to the Chibok incident. How could response have been slow in a military occupied zone?”

Omoleye Omoruyi

Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram