Former President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday challenged Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State to be clear on the role he played in the kidnap of the Chibok school girls.
In a statement from his spokesperson, IkechukwuEze, in response to Shettima’s remarks at the launch of a book by BolajiAbdullahi, the spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja on Thursday, the spokesman said: “We didn’t expect anything less from Governor Shettima, knowing the ignoble roles he played in frustrating the war waged by the past administration against Boko Haram, even in his own Borno State.
“He should be able to tell us if it was Jonathan’s poor choices that led the governor to expose students of Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok to avoidable danger, in total disregard of a federal government directive to the governors in the three states most affected by Boko Haram to relocate their students writing the West African School Certificate Examinations to safe zones.
“The governor is now denying that he had no hand in the kidnap of the Chibok girls even before anybody accused him of culpability. However, we share the view of those who insist that the governor had other things up his sleeve when he promised the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that he would secure the girls and ended up doing the very opposite by deliberately abandoning them to their fate, without any security presence in their school.
“It is instructive that while other governors in the zone heeded the security advice, Shettima remained the only one that flagrantly flouted it. Should we also fail to point out that his decision to reward the principal of Chibok Secondary School, who was uncharacteristically absent on the night terrorists stormed the school, with the post of a commissioner, did throw up more questions than answers?”
Jonathan also lambasted critics of his administration, saying his achievements in government were yet to be matched by his successor. He dismissed Shettima’s claim that his administration was dogged by poor choices and bad governance.
He said: “Was it bad governance and poor choices that reformed the political and electoral processes to the extent that the United Nations is now pleading with the government of the day to strive to maintain the standards established by Jonathan?
“Fortunately, Nigerians know where they stand with all of their leaders. All those who are calling Jonathan names today, and accusing him of having become quite unpopular, should simply take a walk on the streets of any Nigerian city as real leaders do. That way, they will accurately gauge their own approval and test their popularity with the Nigerian people.”
The statement said the book titled; ‘On a Platter of Gold- How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria” as sour grapes and full of lies and gossip written by someone who was still aggrieved at his removal as minister during the Jonathan administration.