Posted on: 06:23 Sat, 06 Feb 2016



Despite efforts and assurances by the Federal
Government that it would rescue the abducted
Chobok girls alive, former President Olusegun
Obasanjo has raised doubts on their possible
return.

Mr Obasanjo, who spoke at an event organized
by the Staff Club of the Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife, on Friday, said anyone saying
the girls would return was simply telling lies.

The programme which was held at the open
arena of the staff club, was themed, “An
Evening with Obasanjo.”

Mr. Obasanjo blamed former President Goodluck
Jonathan for trivializing the distress call to
rescue the girls on the day they were captured.

“The former president heard about the kidnap
8am in the morning of the abduction but failed
to act until 72 hours later and by then it was
too late,” Mr. Obasanjo stated.

“Anyone saying they(Chibok girls) will return is
telling lies, maybe some of them will return to
tell their story.”

According to him, the failure of the Peoples
Democratic Party in the last presidential election
is a blessing to Nigeria.

“We tried, but with Jonathan, it was best that
PDP should fail to save Nigeria,” Mr. Obasanjo
said.

He pointed out that one of the low points of the
Jonathan administration was his treatment of
issues of importance as politics, particularly
that of Boko Haram.

On power generation, Mr Obasajo said there had
been no meaningful improvements since he left
office.

“Power is still the same way I left it in 2007,
railway is same way and other sectors, it was
best that PDP stopped ruling us,” he said.

“It was a thing of joy to me that the earlier
declaration of 50 years governance for PDP did
not come to pass.”

Mr Obasanjo, who was in company with the
Vice-chancellor of the university, Professor
Fadipe and other notable personalities, also took
out time to take a swipe at Professor Wole
Soyinka whom he described as “an amateur
politician.”

“Wole Soyinka is a patriotic Nigerian, he is a
great man but his opinion regarding politics, he
always misses it, I have nothing against him,” he
said.
Mr. Obasanjo also justified some of the
decisions he took on education, saying he would
take the same decisions if he had another
chance.

“I have no regrets regarding the decisions I took
in terms of education including removing free
food in our institutions. We had 53 institutions
when I came in 1999 but as at the time I left
we had 150 institutions,” Mr Obasanjo explained.
“I prefer to have all persons in schools than to
have some few persons simply enjoying free
food.”

He also stated that he never had a godfather
when he contested for president, admonishing
young politicians to shun godfatherism and be
ready to face hard times in politics.