Chibok: 2015 on Jonathan’s mind, says Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says President Goodluck Jonathan did not react quickly to the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls because he thought it was a ploy against his re-election bid.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV Africa on Saturday, Obasanjo said: “The president did not believe that those girls were abducted for almost 18 days.

“Now if the president got the information within 12 hours of the act and he reacted immediately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 24 hours, maximum 48 hours.”

The former president did not however state if he thought the girls’ lives would have been endangered by any rescue efforts, but expressed optimism that if Jonathan had acted on time, the story would have been different.

He said: “Don’t forget we are talking about almost 300 girls. The logistics for moving them is something… if action had been taken immediately.

“But unfortunately, the president had doubts. He thought it’s a ploy by people who do not want him to be president again.”

Jonathan has been widely criticised for his “slow response” to the Chibok saga but the president has always maintained that he did his best.

Obasanjo, who is opposed to a second term for Jonathan, told BBC Focus on Africa last month that Jonathan was overwhelmed by the Boko Haram challenge and needed to change tactics.

He said the president must adopt a “carrot and stick” approach.

President Jonathan has always said terrorism is a global problem and not peculiar to Nigeria.

But in the Bloomberg interview, Obasanjo said even though terrorism is a global problem, it needs to be properly analysed on the basis of country, community and region.

This, he said, would allow the countries to identify the local causes of terrorism and deal with them.

Obasanjo was asked on Professor Wole Soyinka’s position that the introduction of Sharia in northern states in 2001, under Obasanjo’s watch as president, contributed to the rise of terrorism in Nigeria.

He was asked if he regretted not upholding Nigeria’s secular status when the Sharia was being introduced.

The former president did not respond directly to the question but said Nigeria is a secular state, a “multi-religious state”.