Northern group apologises to Jonathan over lies, Boko Haram sponsorship
Human rights activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, has said that replacing President Bola Tinubu with former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2027 elections won’t solve Nigeria’s problems if the systemic rot in governance is not fixed.
Farotimi, in an interview with Channels Television, said a thousand Goodluck Ebele Jonathan could not solve the problems of Nigeria.
He said: “If we do not address our structural problems and if we are incapable of telling ourselves the basic truth that we hold to ourselves, then nothing is going to change. They can recycle all these people as many times as they want. This was the same Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who was vilified and labelled. The media went into overdrive in this country, the pulpits and the mosques said Jonathan’s removal would solve the problems of Nigeria, but here we are – we’re going back into the past to dig up the past. That was how we dug up the one that just expired.
“I don’t believe that our problems are going to be resolved because we changed personnel. The problems we have in Nigeria go beyond people. If you remove Bola Ahmed Tinubu from office today, if you do not touch that evil system that produces the kind of people who have ruined this country, all this talk about Jonathan is just more distraction from the political winning crafts.
“We’re not looking for saviours; it’s about building systems, building a country. How do you rebrand the failure of 2015 into a saint and a saviour in 2025? After 10 years, we’ve gone full cycle, and we are back at a situation where we are saying that we are better off than we were in 2015. We should focus on building the system.”
HOWEVER, a group in North-East, under the auspices of “Bring Back Our Goodluck,” has tendered an unreserved apology to Jonathan over what it described as a damaging narrative of sponsoring Boko Haram terrorists that was used in removing him from office in 2015.
The group, therefore, promised to stage a one-million-man march to the former President’s country home in Bayelsa to prevail on him to contest for the 2027 presidential election after their tour of the whole regions in Nigeria.
It said that it now believed that the former President was removed from office in 2015 as a result of “regime change” orchestrated by foreign powers, in connivance with some desperate politicians in Nigeria.
National Chairman of the group, Grema Kyari, stated this in Maiduguri when hundreds of youths gathered to strategise on the return of Jonathan to the Presidential Villa in 2027.
He said: “We are gathered here today at a time when our beloved country stands at a decisive crossroads. The Nigeria of today is struggling under the weight of economic hardship, rising insecurity, and deepening divisions. Citizens are losing trust in the very institutions meant to protect and serve them.
“I come before you not only as the National Chairman of ‘Bring Back Our Goodluck’ but as a witness to history and as a Nigerian who, like millions of others, was once misled. I am from Borno State, one of the epicentres of the Boko Haram insurgency.
“During the Presidency of Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, a damaging narrative was widely spread in our communities that he sponsored Boko Haram and used the military to suppress us. These lies thrived in an environment of limited, restricted access to truth. But today, with broader exposure and a clear understanding, I know those accusations were false.” (Guardian)
