Former President Goodluck Jonathan launched his book, ‘My Transition Hour’ on Tuesday in Abuja – An event well-attended by powerful actors in the Nigerian political scene.
The former president in his book, accused some governors and the former US president, Barack Obama, of sabotaging his government’s effort in trying to rescue the secondary school girls, abducted in Chibo, Borno state, by Boko Haram in 2014.
In his words:
“The governor of the state (a member of the opposition party) rather than join the federal government in the efforts to rescue the girls opted to stage a cross-continent roadshow in Europe and America, addressing foreign media when the issue that was burning was in his home state and the attention of the world was locked on Nigeria.
“We were presented as the problem of Nigeria. For beyond the Chibok issue, 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.”
On what Obama did, he wrote;
“The tactical attacks by the Obama administration were many. They refused to provide any real military backing for 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 which had been accused of serious human rights violations.
“Even when the state of Israel expressed the willingness to sell attack helicopters to Nigeria, the gesture was frustrated by the Obama administration that kept waving the same Leahy Law like a banner. I believe one day some of the security experts and actors that were involved in the search and rescue will tell the world the truth about the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls.”
See what they had to say about Jonathan’s statement on Obama
Nigerians should query @BarackObama @BBOG_Nigeria Borno Governor and fuel protesters for making @GEJonathan lose 2015 elections. Of course he did nothing wrong himself. #delusional
https://twitter.com/cbngov_akin1/status/1065186982027059201
Jonathan shouldn't also have expected Obama to support him after it took him about 2 weeks to take action on a reported kidnap of hundreds of young girls in Chibok by Bokoharam terrorists