The Presidency has said the
administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan negotiated with
fake leaders of the Boko Haram sect in its bid to secure the release of
over 200 girls abducted in their school in Chibok, Borno State, in April
2014.The Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said this while featuring on a
programme aired on Radio Continental 102.3 FM.Adesina posted excerpts from the interview on his Facebook page on Sunday evening.
The presidential spokesman said in the
process of negotiating with the fake sect leaders, the Federal
Government under Jonathan was swindled out of millions of dollars before
it realised that it had been deceived.
Adesina said the ugly experience formed part of the reasons why the present administration was being careful on the issue of the Chibok girls.
He said the position of President
Muhammadu Buhari remained that the authenticity of persons, who claimed
to be leaders of the sect, must first be ascertained before the current
administration would engage them in talks.
Adesina added, “We need to know a little
bit of what happened behind the scenes between the last government and
some people masquerading as the leadership of Boko Haram, who wanted to
get the Chibok girls released.
“They actually turned it into a
franchise, it became a commercial thing and they got money, possibly in
millions of dollars, only for the government to discover it had been
deceived.
“They kept saying they could get the
girls released; they could interface with Boko Haram and they went
laughing all the way to the bank with all that money, and nothing
happened.
“So you should understand why this
government is being careful and the President has said the genuineness
of the leadership of Boko Haram must be determined before any
negotiation takes place.”
On the continued detention of the ex-National Security Adviser, Sambo
Dasuki, and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu,
the presidential spokesman said despite being granted bail, the
suspects still had other charges against them, which informed their
re-arrest.
He said there would not have been any reason to continue to hold them if there were no fresh charges against them.
When asked to react to the Nigeria Labour Congress’ threat to embark
on strike if fuel subsidy was removed, Adesina wondered whether any
hardship could surpass the one being expressed on fuel queues across the
country.
He said, “What hardship can be greater than what Nigerians passed
through in the past four to six weeks, queuing endlessly to buy petrol
and at the end of the day, buying it at N200, N250, N300 per litre? What
hardship can be greater than that?
“On the flip-side, what we are entering into now is something that
would make life a lot easier for Nigerians, getting petrol, making sure
that the supply is sustained because with crude oil prices down, why
should Nigerians pay so high for refined petrol?
“That is what government is doing. Now that crude prices are down,
this is the opportunity to arrive at appropriate pricing for refined
petrol; that is why we now have N86 from NNPC, N86.5 from other
marketers, and it has also been said that this would be subject to
review every quarter.
“That means if oil prices inch up again, it would affect how much we
buy petrol. Labour, I am sure, will look at the matter again, and know
that it would be better that Nigerians get petrol at clearly affordable
prices, reacting to prices of crude oil, rather than a subsidy regime
that is fraught with so much corruption.”
Adesina also debunked insinuations that Buhari hates the Igbo.
He said, “When the President ran for political office in 2003, who
was his running mate? Dr. Chuba Okadigbo. And in 2007, Chief Edwin
Ume-Ezeoke. If he hated Igbo, would he run with them?
“That shows you the respect and the regard he has for the Igbo, it
was political reality that compelled him to come to the South-West in
2011 and in 2015. Let me tell you a story. There is a prominent Igbo
family in this country, if I mention the names, you would know them,
they are very prominent in the society.
“They told me a story that in the 70s, President Buhari was Minister
of Petroleum, the family wanted to join the petroleum industry and then
they made a bid. By then, there were not too many Nigerians playing in
that industry, and there was a lot of scepticism from those around the
then Lt.-Col. Buhari, who was oil minister.
“They all said they don’t believe that the company as represented by
that family had the capacity to play in the industry. This family told
me that eventually, they got to Lt.-Col. Buhari; he listened to them,
and asked them; ‘Are you sure you have the capacity to do this?’ And
they told him, ‘we can do it’.
“Then he removed his military cap, banged it on the table and told
them, ‘it is done.’ And he instructed that they give them that
opportunity they wanted in the oil industry and today that family is so
big and it never forgets that the then Col. Buhari as oil minister gave
them the break they needed. They told me that story about three weeks
ago.
“The next day, when I saw the President, I told him the story. He
laughed and then went on to tell me that when people say he is against
the Igbo, it baffles him, that really he never knew that family, he just
trusted the assurance they gave him that they could play in the oil
industry.”
punch
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