Yakasai defends Jonathan on non-visit to Chibok

 
ELDER statesman and Chairman of the Northern Elders Council (NEC), Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, has defended President Goodluck Jonathan over his failure to visit Chibok in Borno State following the kidnap of about 275 female students by Boko Haram early in the year.
  About 219 of the girls are still in the custody of the insurgents nine months later.
  According to Yakasai, it was too risky for the president to visit Chibok at the height of the abduction of the students, stressing that, “soldiers were the right people to be sent to the town at time and not President Jonathan.”
  Appearing on a popular Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) Hausa programme, ‘Hannu da Yawa’ monitored in Kaduna, Alhaji Yakasai said: “Why I think the president’s decision not to visit the area is not bad is because we were all aware of the deteriorating level of insecurity in that part of the country.
  “We all know it was too risky for the president to visit Chibok at that time.
  “The president is not a soldier. Soldiers are the people that should have been sent there.


  “If I was the president and such an incident occurred, the right thing for me to do was to send soldiers.”
  He, however, said that the military was tackling the insurgency, and doing their best.
  “We are hearing on radio and reading in newspapers how soldiers are being killed but still they are doing their best,” he said.
  “I don’t know what is happening. The Minister of Defence, Aliyu Gusau is a northerner; the National Security Adviser (NSA) is a northerner; the Inspector General of Police is a northerner; the Chief of Defence Staff is a northerner, and all Nigerian soldiers are under his orders.
  “If all these people cannot address the problems, how would it be easy for the president to do it?
  “Don’t forget that suicide bombers are now experts. So, what will happen if they ambush the president and something bad happened to him?
  “Do you think his people will accept that? Except if people want the country to return to the Niger Delta militant era.”
  Yakasai also spoke on how the Boko Haram insurgency can be put to an end, saying, “to do so, serious measures must be taken.”
  He said: “Could you imagine that today, we are talking of female suicide bombers when we all know in history that females are known to be shy and peace-loving?
  “But today (last week), a girl of age 13 was caught with bombs; some had detonated their bombs which killed many people in Kano. 
  “This is why it is always advisable to tackle such a problem at the early stage before it gets out of hand.”
  Meanwhile, Alhaji Yakasai has lamented the plea made by Borno elders for the Federal Government to withdraw soldiers from the area, stressing that it was a wrong decision.
  He advised Nigerians to always counsel government on ways to end the killings by Boko Haram in the region.
  He appealed to Christians and Muslims to continue praying for the corporate existence of the nation.


 http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/features/policy-a-politics/192007-yakasai-defends-jonathan-on-non-visit-to-chibok