Jonathan was never ready to defeat Boko Haram - Osinbajo

Jonathan was never ready to defeat Boko Haram - Osinbajo

– Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has lashed out at former President Goodluck Jonathan over the handling of insurgency during his tenure 

– He said Mr Jonathan was never committed to ending the Boko Haram insurgency, thus the spread of the terrorist and kidnapping of several persons in the North-East 

– The VP  said the Buhari’s Presidency has effectively dislodged the sect from all the local governments they once held and had retreated into the Sambisa Forest

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has lashed out at former President Goodluck Jonathan over the handling of insurgency during his tenure.

 Mr Osinbajo said Mr Jonathan was never committed to ending the Boko Haram insurgency, thus the spread of the terrorist and kidnapping of several persons in the North-East. 

Osinbajo said this in a lecture titled, “The unraveling of Boko Haram and the rebuilding of the North-East of Nigeria” which he delivered at the Harvard University’s Weatherland Centre for International Affairs, United States. 

 He said it was not until the abduction of more than 200 secondary schoolgirls from their dormitories in Chibok that public outrage against Jonathan’s government’s inept handling of the insurgency reached its peak. 

The Vice-President added, “Secondly, the ruling party also somewhat cynically seemed to have considered that since BH attacks were actually in the heartland of the opposition it was not necessarily an unwelcome development as it could only weaken the opposition.

 “Third, extensive corruption in arms procurement estimated at about $15bn, ensured that the military remained poorly equipped and demoralized.

“A number of well-publicized mutinies occurred and troops involved were taken through widely unpopular court-martials.

 “As the government dithered and equivocated BH proceeded to realize the objective of occupying territory and  establishing Islamist states in Nigeria and in the Lake Chad basin. 

“In Borno State alone, it occupied and hoisted its flag in 20 of the 27 Local Government Areas that constituted the state. In Adamawa State,  BH took Mubi and some villages in Yobe State

” The VP  said within six months of Buhari’s Presidency, the sect had been effectively dislodged from all the local governments they once held and had retreated into the Sambisa Forest and the northern border towns and villages. 

He said the terrorists’ military capacity had been severely degraded and their supply lines effectively blocked. 

 Osinbajo said it was politically incorrect  for the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party to claim that the Boko Haram sect was sponsored by a northern-Muslim political elite to discredit the government led by a Christian. He added that the 

All Progressives Congress was also painted as the political wing of the Boko Haram sect. He said it was not until President Muhammadu Buhari who was then the leader of the opposition, was nearly killed in an attack in Kaduna that the false narrative began to lose credibility. 

SOURCE: Naij News