It is too late to bring back the over 200 abducted Chibok girls, former President Olusegun Obasanjo declared yesterday.
He stated that any of the nation’s leaders promising the return of the teenage girls is simply lying.
Obasanjo spoke at an interactive programme of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife Staff Club tagged Reflections of an elder statesman: An evening with OBJ.
He declared emphatically that searching for the Chibok girls will amount to an effort in futility because “nobody can bring back the girls for they are nowhere to be found.”
According to him: “So if any leader is promising to bring back Chibok girls, he is lying. Majority of these girls would have died, while those alive would have married, sexual violence and human traffic would have affected others.
“Nigerian leaders should stop deceiving the populace as Chibok girls cannot return again.
“The disappearance of the Chibok girls is as a result of non challant attitude of the previous leaders who did not swing to action immediately, which constituted impediment to their return.
“72 hours after the Chibok girls were adopted was too late for their rescue, talk less getting to two years by April.”
On his celebrated ongoing feud with Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the former president, said the acclaimed writer cannot be trusted.
He said: “I will trust Wole Soyinka as an “aparo hunter” (partridge hunter) than trusting him as a political analyst. I have no issue with him.”
On why he refused as President to release fund appropriated by the National Assembly for its members, Obasanjo said: “You don’t know so many things that transpired during my administration. So many things were not resolved, so don’t attack my intelligence and personality.”
On the fate of political Science graduates in mainstream politics, the former President advised them not to rely on godfatherism but work hard to gain grounds.
He said he did not have any godfather, maintaining that 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 you (students) to work hard in order to gain ground and not rely on godfatherism because I never had any godfather,” he said.
Obasanjo, who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for fighting corruption, charged Nigerians to support him to succeed.
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