Obasanjo: GEJ Lived In Denial, Acted Slowly To #bringbackourgirls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fkAKQf1O5k

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan lived in
denial about the abducted Chibok schoolgirls for
more than two weeks, withholding valuable
decisions that would have led to the rescue of the
girls, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has
said.
The former president said this in an interview with
Bloomberg TV Africa, aired on Saturday.
“The president did not believe that those girls
were abducted for almost 18 days,” Mr. Obasanjo
said in the interview. “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.”
Mr. Obasanjo said that rather than spring into
action after receiving briefings about the
abduction, “the president had doubts.”
He said the president’s initial action was to ask:
“‘Is this true, or is it a ploy by people who don’t
want me to be president again?’”
President Jonathan’s lethargic approach to the
kidnapping was the “most unfortunate aspect of
the whole issue,” the former president said.
The insurgent group, Boko Haram, kidnapped over
250 schoolgirls from their hostels in Government
Secondary School Chibok, in the early hours of
April 14, but President Jonathan only
acknowledged it 20 days later, after international
pressures mounted, ahead of the World Economic
Forum for Africa.
The president first spoke about the abduction in a
media chat where he blamed the parents of the
schoolgirls for not volunteering information about
the victims and the incident.
Mr. Obasanjo, who is currently in talks with
mediators to help free the victims, said an equal
lethargy by President Jonathan greeted his earlier
efforts to end the insurgency three years ago.
Boko Haram, whose name means “western
education is sin,” is thought to be waging a
violent campaign to impose Islamic law in most
of Northern Nigeria.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in the
campaign since it started in 2009, with the
highest number of killings occurring this year
alone.
The Boko Haram insurgency has also been
explained as political, especially by members of
the President Jonathan administration, who often
argue the group was set up to “destabilize” the
regime, even though the group’s history pre-dates
the current government.
In his Democracy Day speech, the president said
he has ordered security forces to “launch a full-
scale operation” and use any lawful means to
defeat the group.
Mr. Obasanjo’s criticism of President Jonathan’s
style is the second in less than one year.
In December, he wrote the president an 18-page
letter where he accused Mr. Jonathan of serving
the ethnic interests of his native Ijaw people and
fostering divisions between the largely Muslim
north and the Christian south in a bid to win re-
election in 2015.
“I don’t believe he has performed to the
expectations of many Nigerians, not just me,” Mr.
Obasanjo said in the Bloomberg interview.