The Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, on Thursday described ex-President Goodluck Jonathan as a clueless leader and unsophisticated country person.
He also revealed that the ex-President doubted the abduction of over 200 Chibok girls and was non-challant on the matter.
He said Jonathan almost removed him as governor if not for the refusal of a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) and a former Minister of Special Duties, Alh. Tanimu Turaki.
He said Jonathan’s stewardship was such a turbulent period which would continue to shape for good or bad, the fortunes of the country.
Kashima said the ex-President surrounded himself with an assorted crop of religious bigots and tribal kings unlike ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo who believes in the Nigerian project.
Notwithstanding, he said Jonathan should be commended for conceding defeat and saving the nation from the precipice.
He, however, said Nigeria needs good governance and not restructuring.
The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also said Jonathan was not prepared for leadership.
The governor took swipes at the ex-President at the launch of a book, “On a Platter of Gold: How Jonathan won and lost Nigeria,” written by a former Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi.
Shettima, who was the chairman of the launch, regaled a stunned audience with how Jonathan mismanaged the abduction of Chibok girls by Boko Haram.
He said: “Instead of acting, Jonathan ordered that the Principal of the Government Secondary School, Chibok, should be locked up by the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Yusuf.
“Sadly, Borno was the epicenter of the whole crisis that engulfed the Jonathan administration. This is the second book I am reading of the Jonathan saga, the first written by Olusegun Adeniyi.
“I see former President Jonathan essentially a decent person, an unsophisticated country person caught up in the power politics in Nigeria
“When the Chibok girls saga started, they made the President to believe that there was no abduction and that they were kidnapped by the Governor of Borno State to embarrass the Jonathan administration and he believed that line of story.
“I was in Chibok, my wife was in Chibok, there was global outcry about the abduction, but he was in a world of his own, created by the clowns and misfits around him.
“I wasn’t invited to Abuja until nearly three weeks later and even when I was invited, I was happy that at last, I was getting the attention of my leader. I was asked to come to Abuja with the Commissioner of police, the DPO in Chibok, the Commissioner of Education, the military commander in Chibok and the Director of SSS in Borno.
“We were all ushered in to the Villa and sadly when the President came in, he was still in the world of make-believe. He started threatening the Principal that he should tell him where the girls were. He was shouting, ‘Principal, you must tell me where those girls are, Commissioner of Police, you must tell me where the girls are.’
“He immediately ordered the arrest of the Principal, the DPO, the Commissioner of Police and the Director of SSS, that they must produce the girls. In this very unfortunate saga, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police arrested them, took them to the police headquarters and told them he cannot hold onto them because he was a man of conscience. He let them go on self-recognition.
“I was quite taken aback because I thought the solution was going to be found to a very grave national challenge. Instead, the President was still of the mindset that those girls were not abducted.
“That goes to show the quality of leadership in this country. Incidentally, the Brigade Commander in Chibok was an Ijaw man and because they know that the President is such a very unsophisticated person, but such an honest man, they knew that if they brought his kinsman, they could have gotten him confused.
“So, they deliberately refused to bring the Brigade Commander in Chibok and that denied the President from getting a true perspective of the issues at stake. But we have to give it to him that by conceding defeat, he saved the nation from the precipice.”
