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| Former President Goodluck Jonathan |
Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State
on Monday said former President Goodluck Jonathan did not call him until
after 19 days after the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from the
Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, in 2014.
No fewer than 259 schoolgirls were
abducted by Boko Haram militants from their hostel in GSS, Chibok, on
April 14, 2014 as they prepared for their West African Senior
Secondary Certificate Examinations.
A few of the girls managed to escape
from the terrorists, who were said to have dressed like military men and
loaded the girls into trucks and headed for an unknown destinations.
Over 219 of the girls are yet to be rescued since the unfortunate incident.
Shettima, however, said Jonathan, who
was the President at the time of the mass abduction, only called him on
the kidnapping about three weeks after the incident, which generated
global outrage at the time.
The Borno State governor said this while
receiving former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the Government House,
Maiduguri, after the ex-President arrived at the state capital on a
two-day visit. Obasanjo was on a visit to Borno on the
invitation of the University of Maiduguri as part of the institution’s
40th anniversary celebration.
Trying to draw a comparison between the
leadership style of Obasanjo and Jonathan, Shettima believed Obasanjo
would have handled the issue of the kidnapping differently were he to be
the nation’s President at the time.
He stated, “In our own case, Your
Excellency, after the Chibok abduction of over 200 schoolgirls in April,
2014, it took 19 days for me to receive a call from the Presidency. I
brought this mainly to show the difference, because we will only
appreciate scenarios when we make comparisons.”
The governor recalled that the current
Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who was a top member of the
All Progressives Congress in 2014, hailed Obasanjo’s leadership
qualities in a conversation after the mass abduction.
Shettima added, “I was actually
lamenting to him on governance at the federal level with relations to
the poor handling of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“Chief Ogbeh said, ‘Look, I might have
had some political differences with President Olusegun Obasanjo but to
say it as it is, if Obasanjo had been President while this insurgency is
happening in Borno and other parts of the North-East, you would have
witnessed what responsive leadership entails’.”
Shettima noted that Obasanjo’s visit on
Monday marked the ex-President’s first visit to the Borno State
Government House since 1976. The governor described himself as “lucky and privileged” to receive the former President as the governor of the state.
Obasanjo, in his reaction, said the Boko
Haram insurgency would become a thing of the past judging from the
military’s string of successes against the extremist group in recent
times.
The former President, who was in
Maiduguri in 2011 to initiate a possible dialogue between the Jonathan
administration and the insurgents, commended President Muhammadu
Buhari’s strategies to fighting the terrorists, noting that peace was
gradually returning to the troubled areas.
He said, “A lot of water has passed
under the bridge in this part of the country. I must not forget to
commiserate with all our people in this state and indeed the entire
North-East, which have been victims of insurgency in the way we have
never witnessed in this country before.
“I travel a lot in Africa and outside
Africa, and wherever I have gone in recent times, what people want to
know is what and how Nigeria is coping with the situation of insurgency.
“Today, I think we are not out of the woods yet but it would appear that we can see the light beyond the tunnel.
“There is no doubt that with the
combined efforts at the local level, at the state level and at the
federal level, and even at the community level, our security forces are
on the ascendancy over the forces of destruction, the menace and danger
of insurgency that we have experienced for almost six years now.”
According to Obasanjo, Buhari has shown
that he is passionate about ending insecurity in the country, calling
for support for his government.
He added, “Talking to the President
(Buhari) about the issue of insurgency in particular and insecurity in
general, I know that he is very, very concerned, and not only very
concerned, he has got it right. “He (Buhari) has ensured that where they
(Boko Haram) have occupied is cleared of any mines. Where you have
mines, lives are not only insecure, people feel intimidated for you
never know when you may step on them.”
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