ILE-IFE, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday dropped the bomb: He declared pointedly that over 200 Chibok secondary school girls, abducted in April 2014 in Chibok, Borno State cannot be rescued.
The former president who portrayed his fellow ex-president, Goodluck Jonathan as nonchalant towards rescuing the abducted girls, noted that promises to recover the girls could not be fulfilled considering the length of time they have been away with the dreaded Boko Haram sect.
“Seventy-two hours after the Chibok girls were adopted was too late for their rescue, talk less of getting to two years by April this year. So if any leader is promising to bring back Chibok girls now, he is lying,” Obasanjo said.
Answering questions from staffers and students at the event, Obasanjo declared that whoever was promising to bring back missing Chibok girls almost two years after their abduction, was not sincere.
He attributed the difficulty in bringing back the girls to what he described as nonchalant attitude of former President Goodluck Jonathan, when the girls were abducted.
He further explained that majority of the girls would have died, while those alive would have been married off, stressing that sexual violence and human trafficking would have affected others.
Obasanjo who featured on a programme tagged: “7th Roundtable with Chief Olusegun Obasanjo,” with the theme: “Reflections Of An Elder Statesman: An Evening With OBJ,” organised by the Staff Club of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, urged budding politicians to disregard political godfathers and rather work hard to gain recognition.
The former president declared that he did not have any godfather when venturing into politics, and revealed that politicians must get “their hands dirty and their feet wet” before major opportunities come their ways in politics.
“You have to get your hands dirty and your feet wet in politics before you can make it. So, I admonish you to work hard in order to gain ground and not rely on godfathers because I never had any,” Obasanjo averred.
Obasanjo who threw his weight behind the anti-corruption war of President Muhammadu Buhari urged Nigerians to support the president in his bid to recover funds stolen from public treasury.
He commended President Buhari on his fight against corruption and urged Nigerians to get behind him in the anti-graft crusade for the efforts to achieve the desired results.
Commenting on the lingering discord between him and Nobel Laurete, Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief Obasanjo said Soyinka “Is no man to be trusted. I will trust Wole Soyinka as an “aparo hunter” rather than trusting him as a political analyst. I have no issue with him.”
Credit: Leadership (Nigeria)
