Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday declared that efforts to rescue the abducted Chibok girls would be in vain because “nobody can bring back the girls for they are nowhere to be found”.
Over 200 school girls of Chibok Secondary School, Maiduguri, Borno State were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014 and are yet to be rescued despite assurances from the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan and the incumbent government of Muhammadu Buhari.
Obasanjo made the chilly statement on Friday night at the 7th Roundtable interaction in his honour organised by the Staff Club of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) tagged: Reflections of an Elder Statesman: An Evening with OBJ.
The former President insisted that efforts to locate the girls would be in vain and advised Nigerian leaders to stop deceiving the populace about possible rescue of the Chibok girls, stressing that they cannot return.
Obasanjo maintained that majority of the girls would have died, while those who would be alive would have been married off, sexually abused or would have become victims of human trafficking.
The two-time Nigerian leader attributed the disappearance of the Chibok girls to the non-challant attitude of the previous Nigerian leadership, whom he blamed for not “swinging into action immediately they were abducted, thereby constituting an impediment to their return”.
According to him, “72 hours after the Chibok girls were abducted was too late for their rescue, talk less of when it is getting to two years, by April.
“So, if any leader is promising to bring back the Chibok girls to Nigeria, he is lying”.
While commending President Muhammed Buhari over his fight against corruption, Obasanjo urged Nigerians to lend maximum support to the Buhari’s anti-graft war, stressing that he was on the right path.
On the feud between him and Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Obasanjo dismissed the renown playwright as not one to be trusted as political analyst.
According to the ex-president, “I will rather trust Wole Soyinka as an ‘aparo hunter’ than trust him as a political analyst. I however, have no issue with him”.
The Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Prof. Bamitale Omole, had in his remarks commended the ex-president for his “great achievements”.
No comments:
Post a Comment