Jonathan has underperformed – Obasanjo

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi with agency report

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, at the weekend, rated the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan low, saying he has performed below the expectations of Nigerians.

In an interview he granted the Bloomberg TV Africa, which was aired at the weekend and monitored by our correspondent, Obasanjo said, “I don’t believe he (Jonathan) has performed to the expectations of many Nigerians, not just me”.

The former head of state also said Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa state has achieved a lot within the past seven years of his government.

He insisted that this has not only put him in good stead to be Nigeria’s President, but shoulder to shoulder with any contestant for the country’s top job.

However, he said the Jigawa Governor is yet to inform him of his ambition to contest for the Presidency, but said if Lamido aspires to contest in 2015, he would wish him “good luck”.

Recall that Obasanjo was alleged to have backed the rumored presidential ambition of Jigawa state governor, obviously due to the fallout between him and the incumbent President Jonathan, whom he supported to become Nigeria’s President.

Responding to questions on the abducted school girls in Chibok, Borno state, General Obasanjo said President Jonathan, for the first two weeks of the abduction, did not believe it was real.

The former president, in the interview said, “The president did not believe that those girls were abducted for almost 18 days. If the president got the information within 12 hours of the act and he reacted immediately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 24 hours, maximum-48 hours”.

He described Jonathan’s doubts about the abduction as unfortunate, saying the latter’s attitude was whether the girls were abducted truly, or if was a plan by his opponents to destabilise his government.

At this point, he explained that the security agencies initially underestimated the Boko Haram group, recalling that three years ago when he initiated peace moves with relatives of the insurgents, he related his findings to top national security officers.

He regretted that rather than take the issue seriously, the security agents dismissed it, saying that the sect members were “riff-raffs” bent on destroying the government of the day.

Obasanjo however dismissed the belief that the implementation of Shari’ah law under his tenure led to the ongoing insurgency, even though he admitted that signing the Sharia Bill into law was a “mistake”.