Chibok Girls: Stop Deceiving Nigerians, Obasanjo Tells Govt

• Faults Soyinka’s Political Analyses<em

DESPITE repeated assurances by the Federal Government that the missing Chibok girls would be rescued and handed over to their parents, former President Olusegun Obasanjo says the optimism might end up as a mirage.

Obasanjo, therefore, urged the country’s leaders to stop deceiving Nigerians and come out clean on the issue, stressing that hope on rescuing the missing girls has dimmed.

Speaking at the staff club of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun state on Friday night, the former president said it was doubtful if the missing girls would ever be found.

“The lot of the Chibok girls,” he said, “is regrettable; their disappearance should be blamed on negligence by the previous administration, which did not act in good time to tackle the insurgency.”

“Seventy-two hours after the Chibok girls were abducted was too late for their rescue, much less getting them back two years after. So, if any leader is promising to bring back the Chibok girls to Nigeria, he is lying.”

He added: “Many of the girls would have died, while those alive would have been forcefully married; sexual violence and human trafficking would have affected others.”

On his controversial relationship with Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Obasanjo said that though he has no issues with him, the professor should not be trusted, adding, “I will trust Wole Soyinka as an “aparo (partridge) hunter. I don’t trust him as a political analyst.”

When a student asked him the fate of graduates of political science in mainstream politics, Obasanjo advised students not to rely on godfathers to excel in politics but to work hard.

Stressing that he did not have any godfather, the former leader said: “Politicians get their hands dirty and their feet wet before major opportunities come their ways in politics.

“You have to get your hands dirty and your feet wet in politics before you can make it. So, I admonish students to work hard in order to gain ground and not rely on godfathers because I did not have any godfather.”

There was a mild drama at the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, when Chief Obasanjo prostrated, to pay homage to the monarch.

The former president described the Ooni as father of all Yoruba people, even as he commended the unity tour embarked upon by the Ooni.