Former President Goodluck Jonathan says the 2014 abduction of 276 Chibok schoolgirls will remain an indelible scar on his presidency.
Jonathan spoke on Friday at the public presentation of SCARS: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a memoir by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor. He praised Irabor as “a soldier who stood for truth and never played politics with security.”
Reflecting on the tragedy, Jonathan said: “One of the major scars on my government is the Chibok Girls. As Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it. It is a scar I will die with.”
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The mass kidnapping from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, sparked global outrage and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. While some of the girls have been rescued or released, more than 80 remain missing. Survivors continue to face stigma, trauma, and disrupted education, with some returning home with children born in captivity.
Jonathan admitted Boko Haram’s insurgency worsened under his watch. “I battled Boko Haram for five years as President. I thought Buhari would wipe them out quickly, but they remain. Sometimes they even had more munitions than our soldiers,” he said.
He defended his silence at the time, insisting it was to protect sensitive intelligence, but stressed that Nigeria must adopt a renewed approach in tackling terrorism, possibly combining “carrot and stick” measures.
Over a decade later, about 189 girls have regained freedom, but dozens remain in captivity. The Federal Government says their rescue is still a priority.
