Kashim Shettima
The
governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, has claimed that Goodluck
Jonathan's new book is 'elementary' and 'full of fiction'.
A day after the public presentation of his book, ‘My Transition
Hour’, former President Goodluck Jonathan has been criticised by the
Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, who described the book as
“elementary” and containing “fiction,” Premium Times reports.
Mr Shettima said the former president lied about the issue of the
Chibok schoolgirls, who were abducted in 2014 while Mr Shettima was in
office. The issue was included in the content of the new book.
Mr Jonathan was in the spotlight on Tuesday when he launched the book at an event marking his 62nd birthday.
The book focused on the former president’s last days in office in
2015 and controversies that trailed his eventual acceptance of defeat
ahead of the official announcement of the election results.
Mr Jonathan at the event also delved into a narration of the
‘intrigues’ trailing the abduction of the schoolgirls, as captured in
his book.
In Chapter 4 of the book, the former president blamed the inability
of his government to rescue the girls on the then opposition All
Progressive Congress (APC), which was in control of Borno State then.
He also criticcised former U.S. President, Barrack Obama’s
administration for failing to assist his government in rescuing the
kids.
In a swift rebuttal, Wednesday, Mr Shettima accused the former
president of an attempt to “sweep under the carpet the incontrovertible
facts about how his (Jonathan) government mishandled the issue of the
abduction.”
Mr Shettima who made his view known via a press statement issued by
his media adviser, Isa Gusau, wondered how the former president could
speak about the abduction when ”he had never believed any girl was abducted”.
The governor also said ”he took the whole of Tuesday night to read
the former president’s book” and found it ‘elementary’ in content.
He said Mr Jonathan deliberately omitted details of the
presidential fact-finding committee he belatedly constituted to
investigate how the girls went missing in Chapter 4 of his book ”where the issue was extensively discussed”.
Mr Shettima, who described ex-president Jonathan’s book as “elementary book of tales”, said the book “fell short of the courage required of him (Jonathan) to publish findings by his own panel in chapter four of his book”.
Goodluck Jonathan
Mr Shettima’s statement reads in full
“The whole of Tuesday night, I took the pains of reading His
Excellency, former President Goodluck Jonathan’s book, My Transition
Hours, from the first to the 177th page. I took particular interest in
chapter four (the Chibok school girls affair) which has 42 paragraphs
written on pages 27 to 36.
“I was amused that despite admitting in paragraph 15, that he
had (in May 2014) constituted a Presidential Fact-Finding Committee
under Brigadier General Ibrahim Sabo and many others “to investigate”
the Chibok abduction, former President Jonathan refused to mention any
part or whole of the findings by that panel which had submitted a highly
investigative report submitted to him on Friday, June 20, 2014 after
the panel held investigative meetings with the then Chiefs of Defense
Staff, Army Staff, Air Staff, the DG, DSS and IGP, met all security
heads in Borno, visited Chibok, met with parents of abducted
schoolgirls, met surviving students, interrogated officials of the
school and the supervising ministry of education, interrogated officials
of WAEC and analyzed all correspondences.
“What has become very clear is that the former President
decided to sit on facts in his custody while he published, in an
elementary standard, a book of fiction designed to pass guilty verdicts
to anyone but himself, with respect to the open failures of his
administration to rescue our daughters and in tackling the Boko Haram
challenges.
“By refusing to publish any part of his own panel’s findings on
the Chibok abduction, Jonathan’s book was nothing short of a
presidential tale by midday.
“For the records, I recall that on Tuesday, the 6th of May,
2014, President Jonathan had inaugurated multi-agency/stakeholder
fact-finding panel under the chairmanship of Brig. General Ibrahim Sabo
(rtd), a one-time Director of Military Intelligence and also appointed a
secretary from the Niger Delta.
“President Jonathan single-handedly selected all members of
that committee which included his trustees amongst serving and retired
security officers from the Army, DSS and Police; representatives of the
UN and ECOWAS, representatives of the Chibok community, local and
international civil rights organisations, representatives of the
National Council on Women Societies, the Nigeria Union of Journalists
amongst other persons he trusted.
“For almost two months, the probe panel undertook forensic
assessment of all documents on the entire issue, held investigative
meetings with parents of the schoolgirls during a visit to Chibok. The
panel held separate one-on-one investigative meetings with myself, the
then Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chiefs of Air and
Naval Staff, met the then Director General of the DSS and the Inspector
General of Police, all of whom were appointees of President Jonathan.
“The panel interrogated officials of Borno Government including
the Comof Education and the school principal. The panel also held
investigative meetings with heads of all security agencies in Borno
State including security formations in charge of Chibok. At the end, the
panel submitted it’s report directly to President Jonathan on Friday,
the 20th of June, 2014 in Abuja. President Jonathan has refused to make
public the findings submitted to him. I was expecting the findings in
his book but he has deliberately swept that report under the carpet.
“However, I remember that on June 24, 2014, the ThisDay
Newspaper claimed to have obtained a copy of the panel’s report and
published as its lead, that painstaking findings by the Presidential
panel had indicted the military under Jonathan’s watch and completely
absolved the Borno State Government of any blame regarding the Chibok
abduction.
“The newspaper went further to say that panel actually
commended efforts of the Borno State Government in its commitment to the
fight against Boko Haram as testified by heads of security
establishments.”
“It is clear to me, after reading the former president’s book,
that he still lives with poor understanding of issues under his
presidency.
“For instance, Jonathan’s claim on page 31 that Boko Haram
wanted a Muslim President rather than him as Christian was laughable
since the insurgents actually began their deadliest attacks in Borno
under the regime of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, a Muslim from
northern Nigeria.
“We know for a fact that as vicious cycle of evil, Boko Haram
fighters do not care about the religion of their targeted victims. They
attack Mosques and Churches. They are lunatics who regard anyone who
doesn’t share their ideology as an infidel.
“So, I wonder how the former President didn’t take time to understand the biggest challenge under his presidency.”
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