Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
The
presidency on Saturday reacted sharply to statements credited to former
President Olusegun Obasanjo that President Goodluck Jonathan should
blame himself for not handling the menace of Boko Haram well.
Special Adviser to the President on
Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, said Obasanjo had earlier accused the
President of using force and later he (Obasanjo) faulted the use of
force.
He said, “As far as the President is
concerned, he does not take Obasanjo’s statement as something that is
serious because the former President has unlimited access to him if he
wants to proffer advice.
“If Obasanjo said what he said, we will
just tolerate him because the other time, he said force should be used
and he turned back to say dialogue must be used.
“Now, he is saying another thing. He is
becoming confusing. I think the old man is becoming confused. The fact
is that the insecurity issue started even during Obasanjo’s regime. It
did not start with Jonathan’s regime.”
Gulak said the present administration was focused on confronting insecurity through the use of intelligence.
He said Jonathan had resolved not to use brutal force against innocent citizens.
“The security agencies are deploying
intelligence. The culprits are being arrested and arraigned in courts of
law. Bomb manufacturing outfits are being identified and destroyed.
That is the best way to go about it and the government is doing so
reasonably,” he said.
Obasanjo had in an interview with the pan-African magazine, New African, said Jonathan was mismanaging security issues engulfing the country.
He said, “If the President is the chief
security officer of the country and there is a security problem, where
do you go for the solution?
“And if that solution is not coming from
the chief security officer, who has everybody and can mobilise everybody
inside and outside to get a solution, then he has the responsibility to
solve the problem. And nobody else should be blamed but him.”
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