‘Anyone saying Chibok girls will return is telling lies’, Obasanjo

Nigerian hopes on the return and rescue of the Chibok Girls was on Friday dealt a big blow by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who suggested that the girls may not return despite the many assurances of the Federal Government.

The former President who spoke an event themed an ‘Evening with Obasanjo’ organized by the Staff Club of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on Friday, said, “Anyone saying they(Chibok girls) will return is telling lies, maybe some of them will return to tell their story.”

Mr. Obasanjo blamed former President Goodluck Jonathan for not acting early enough 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.

He said 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.

Bashing his former party, calling their loss a blessing for Nigeria, Obasanjo 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.”