Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, has said‎ the international concerns and outrage over the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State are understandable, but added that it is unfair to blame President Goodluck Jonathan for the incident.
The president’s spokesman, in an opinion published in Washington Post on Wednesday, said attempt to ignore the issues and the genesis of terrorism and efforts of Jonathan’s administration to address them was deliberate mischief fuelled by ignorant propaganda.
He reminded critics that Boko Haram started in 2002 and had become a much bigger terrorism organisation before Jonathan came on board in 2010.
Reiterating the president’s commitment to the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls, Abati listed past efforts to curb the Boko Haram menace to include declaration of state of emergency in 2013 in the most affected North-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which he said had been renewed twice.
He said the country’s cooperation with neighbouring countries resulted in the setting up of a multinational task force under the auspices  of the Lake Chad Commission, with troops contributed by Niger, Nigeria and Chad.
Abati said Nigeria also shared intelligence and efforts with Cameroun and Benin through the Gulf of Guinea Commission, focusing on piracy, border security and checking the proliferation of small arms and light weapons within the region.
He said the regular meetings of the nation’s security chiefs  with their counterparts from the four neighbouring countries on matters of peace and security, resulted in the notable decimation of the ranks of the Boko Haram and their restriction to the Sambisa forest.

Chibok: Outrage understandable, Jonathan not to blame –Abati