“What is important now is Jonathan explaining to the families of the abducted schoolgirls why as president, he did nothing for two weeks after the Chibok abductions and still refuses to take responsibility for the tragedy up till now – except he continues to blame the Chibok abductions and other failings of his administration on the so-called grand conspiracy against him as he laboriously tries to state in his response to Cameron.”
Nigeria’s ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has noted that former President Goodluck Jonathan should have saved himself the embarrassment by not replying former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, on his comments accusing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government he led of corruption and failure to ensure timely rescue of 276 Chibok schoolgirls from Boko Haram den, despite British Government readiness to provide support.
The girls were kidnapped in Federal Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014 and Jonathan was said to have failed to rise to the challenge even when the then governor of the state, Kashim Shettima ran to him in Abuja for help as the former President and his party stalwarts including his wife, Patience, believed and, even till present day, still believe that what was being screamed around about Chibok girls kidnap was mere figment of imagination of opposition, who where then the APC.
With Buhari coming to power, it became almost impossible for anybody to deny existence of Chibok schoolgirls as the now four year-old President has rescued half of the kidnapped number and has freed entire number of fresh schoolgirls kidnap in Dapchi.
David Cameron who, as Prime Minister of UK, provided his country’s support at that time to save and rescue the girls, has written a book titled “For the Record” in which he accused the former Nigerian President of corruption and failing in his duty to save the 276 schools half of whom were later saved by President Buhari but Jonathan did not allow those words by Cameron to settle before he replied.
The APC said he should not have bothered to reply denying the ex-British PM’ s allegations since, according to the Nigerian ruling party, “Nigerians already know the story of Jonathan’s habitual negligence to matters of state.”
The APC said this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, in Abuja at the weekend, copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER.
It said, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to and refuted comments by former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his new book, For the Record, in which the Jonathan administration is accused of corruption and rejecting the help of the British Government in rescuing the 276 Chibok schoolgirls, who were kidnapped on April 14, 2014.
“Although, Jonathan is entitled to a right of reply, he shouldn’t have bothered about Cameron’s allegations, talk less denying it.
“Nigerians already know the story of Jonathan’s habitual negligence to matters of state. The Chibok schoolgirls abduction and his “sleeping behind the wheel” is not a story to deny as it is already part of our national history. We may disagree on a number of issues in Nigeria, but there is a national consensus on the fact that PDP elevated corruption to a national culture.
“Denying or arguing against the truth is not going to change anything at this stage. The stories of outlandish corrupt practices under the PDP are still unraveling.
“What is important now is Jonathan explaining to the families of the abducted schoolgirls why as president, he did nothing for two weeks after the Chibok abductions and still refuses to take responsibility for the tragedy up till now – except he continues to blame the Chibok abductions and other failings of his administration on the so-called grand conspiracy against him as he laboriously tries to state in his response to Cameron.
“The current administration’s reactions and actions after the similar and unfortunate Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapping is a pointer to how a responsive government should act.
“That Jonathan government was corrupt was actually half of the story. The full story is that corruption hallmarked the successive 16 years administrations under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is shameful that anyone is even defending it. Corruption is PDP’s political ideology. This fact is already cast in stone. Nigerians do not need Cameron or anyone else to tell us how corrupt and ineffectual the PDP era was.
“As a consequence, Nigerians voted out the PDP administration in 2015 and elected the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration to clear the mess the 16-year PDP administration left the country. Our resolve to do just that is unshaken,” APC said in the statement.
