Former President Goodluck
Jonathan has fired back at former British Prime Minister, David Cameron over
his judgment on his administration and matters concerning the rescue of Chibok
Girls, who were kidnapped in 2014.
David Cameron in his book titled
“For the Record” accused President Jonathan led-administration of corruption
and claimed he rejected help to rescue the Chibok girls from Boko Haram.
However, in a message authored by
the ex-president on Saturday, he debunked all the allegations levelled against
him and stated that he requested help by writing to David Cameron and other
world leaders which include Barack Obama, François Hollande and Israeli Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Read Goodluck Jonathan’s full
statement below:
I read the comments by former
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his new book, For the Record, in
which he accused me and the Nigerian Government, which I headed, of corruption
and rejecting the help of the British Government in rescuing the Chibok Girls,
who were kidnapped on April 14, 2014.
It is quite sad that Mr. Cameron
would say this because nothing of such ever occurred. As President of Nigeria,
I not only wrote letters to then Prime Minister David Cameron, I also wrote to
the then US President, Barrack Obama, and the then French President, François
Hollande, as well as the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealing
to them for help in rescuing the Chibok Girls.
How could I write to appeal for
help and then reject the very thing I appealed for?
Also, history contradicts Mr.
Cameron. On March 8, 2012, when the same Boko Haram linked terrorists abducted
a British expatriate named Chris McManus, along with an Italian hostage Franco
Lamolinara, in Sokoto, I, as Nigerian President, personally authorised a rescue
effort by members of the British military Special Boat Service supported by
officers and men of the Nigerian Army, to free the abducted men.
So, having set a precedent like
that, why would I reject British help in rescuing the Chibok Girls, if it was
offered?
I also authorised the secret
deployment of troops from the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel as a
result of the Chibok incident, so how Mr. Cameron could say this with a
straight face beats me.
Jonathan said the government of Theresa May, Cameron’s
successor, had once exposed alleged lies the author of For The Record told
about the Chibok abduction.
He said Cameron did not reach him over the Chibok kidnap,
adding that he was the one who wrote to him to seek intervention.
Moreover, on March 8, 2017, the
British Government of former Prime Minister, Theresa May, in a widely
circulated press statement, debunked this allegation and said there was no
truth in it after Mr. Cameron had made similar statements to the Observer of
the UK.
In his book, Mr. Cameron failed
to mention that I wrote him requesting his help on Chibok. Why did he suppress
that information? I remind him that copies of that letter exist at the State
Houses in Nigeria and London. He never called me on the phone to offer any
help. On the contrary, I am the one that reached out to him.
He accused me of appointing
Generals based on political considerations. How could that be when I fired my service
chiefs twice in five years, to show that I would not tolerate anything less
than meaningful progress in the war on terror.
I was completely blind to ethnic
or political considerations in my appointments. In civil and military matters,
I appointed people that I had never even met prior to appointing them, based on
their professional pedigree. Though I was from the South, most of my service
chiefs came from the North.
I do, however, know that Mr.
Cameron has long nursed deep grudges against me for reasons that have been
published in various media.
On July 24, 2013, while
celebrating the passage of the United Kingdom’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples)
Act, 2013, Mr. Cameron said “I want to export gay marriage around the world”.
At that occasion, he boasted that
he would send the team that successfully drafted and promoted the Bill, to
nations, like Nigeria, saying inter alia:
“I’ve told the Bill team I’m now
going to reassign them because, of course, all over the world people would have
been watching this piece of legislation”.
As President of Nigeria at that
time, I came under almost unbearable pressure from the Cameron administration
to pass legislation supporting LGBTQ Same Sex marriage in Nigeria. My
conscience could not stomach that, because as President of Nigeria, I swore on
the Bible to advance Nigeria’s interests, and not the interest of the United
Kingdom or any foreign power.
As such, on Monday, January 13,
2014, I signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into law after the Bill
had been passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Nigeria’s parliament,
in line with the wishes of the Nigerian people. This happened shortly after a
study of 39 nations around the world by the U.S. Pew Research Center came up with
a finding which indicated that 98 percent of Nigerians were opposed to the idea
of Gay Marriage.
Immediately after I took this
patriotic action, my government came under almost unbearable pressure from Mr.
Cameron, who reached me through envoys, and made subtle and not so subtle
threats against me and my government.
In fact, meetings were held at
the Obama White House and at the Portcullis House in Parliament UK, with the
then Nigerian opposition to disparage me, after I had signed the Same-Sex
Marriage Prohibition Bill into law.
On the issue of corruption, it
suffices to say that Mr. Cameron is not as competent as Transparency
International, which is globally acknowledged as the adjudicator of who is
corrupt and who is not.
During my administration, in
2014, Nigeria made her best ever improvement on the annual Transparency
International Corruption Perception Index, moving from 144 the previous year,
to 136, an 8 point improvement. As a nation, we have not made such improvements
on the CPI before or after 2014.
In line with these facts, I would
urge the public to take Mr. Cameron’s accusations with a grain of salt. I will
not be the first person to accuse him of lying on account of this book, and
with the reactions in the Uk so far, I definitely will not be the last.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Chairman
of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation and President of Nigeria 2010-2015.
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