NIGERIA: Adefuye Tackles McCain over Comments on Jonathan

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The disparaging remarks of the United States Republican Party Senator, John McCain, on President Goodluck Jonathan have been described as a sad footnote in the show of friendship and support to Nigeria by the American nation as the country battles to rescue the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls.
 
The Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Professor Ade Adefuye, who made the remarks in his address at the monthly meeting of Constituency for Africa at the Ritz Carlton Hotel said: “The ranking Arizona senator and former Republican presidential candidate has inexplicably seized on the pain of a distressed nation not only to show contempt to our country but also denigrate the office and person of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
 
According to Adefuye whose address was titled: ‘Message to the American People, Our Girls Will Be Back,’ “it is this president of the largest economy in Africa, 26th largest economy in the world, America's largest trading partner in Africa and America’s most important strategic partner in the continent that McCain described as 'some guy called Goodluck Jonathan,' whose consent he would not have sought before deploying US troops to rescue the abducted girls.”
 
Adefuye reminded the former presidential candidate that his statement which might have reinforced his image as a hawk and reminded us of his status as a veteran, the US Senate ignored him and passed a balanced Resolution on May 14 condemning the abduction and urging the US government to assist Nigeria in its effort to rescue the girls safely.
 
“This has strengthened the hands of the US government to cooperate with Nigeria in dealing with Boko Haram,” he added, advising him to engage the Nigerian people in a constructive and meaningful engagement while asking his   staff to brief him properly on Nigeria “and accord our country as well as the Office of the President the respect they deserve.”
 
 
Adefuye thanked the American people whom he stressed with their support, and that of their government and other members of the international community, “our girls will be safely rescued and Boko Haram will cease to be a menace!”
 
He asked McCain where his  principle of respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of nation states had gone.
 
“Has McCain forgotten the results of such acts just a few years ago? Could he not learn from the results of previous unilateral military interventions?  One wonders what could have happened if the 2008 elections have gone the other way and McCain became the president of the most powerful nation in the world. But thanks to providence. The good Lord has a better plan for the people of the world.”
 
On the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls, Adefuye assured the international community that the Jonathan administration was committed to their release as well as finding and punishing their abductors and the perpetrators of the Nyanya bomb blast.
 
He debunked the popular impression that Nigerian soldiers were incompetent and had been slow in the rescue mission of the abducted girls. “We do appreciate their universal condemnation of the abduction of the girls and the express wish to get them rescued. But we also find it necessary to react to some statements on the remote and immediate causes of Boko Haram insurgency and the reaction of our government in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping of our girls from their hostels,” he said. 
 
Adefuye said it was expedient for him to explain to CNN that Nigerian security agencies took actions immediately on learning of the kidnapping of the girls, noting that the allegations of delayed response made in some sections of the media are as wrong as they are unfortunate.
 
According to the ambassador, the nature of the challenge dictated the nature and style of response.
 
He added that  the pursuit of the abductors needed to be done in a covert manner shrouded in secrecy and away from the glare of the public. “You do not engage in an inconclusive covert action and rush immediately to address a press conference. Our security forces took immediate steps to pursue the abductors of our girls with the aim of getting them released. But the details of the action taken were such that it did not easily lend itself to publicity.”
 
“If parents of the abducted schoolgirls and some sections of the media accuse our government for not taking immediate action,” he continued, “it was because they were not made to be aware of the steps being taken by the government. I wish to affirm here that there was nothing a responsible government ought to do in the circumstance of the abduction of our girls that we did not do. We acted promptly. It was just that details could not be released to the public as at that time.
 
“The competence, preparedness and determination of the Nigerian armed forces to deal with Boko Haram should not be in doubt,” Adefuye assured his audience while emphasising that terrorism was an intractable, worldwide phenomenon which, before the advent of Boko Haram, was strange to Nigeria.
 
“In spite of the fact that our armed forces have being doing their best to confront it, it is when Boko Haram strikes successfully that the world becomes aware of its existence. What is not known is how many attempts of the sect to strike have been frustrated by the vigilance and effectiveness of our armed forces.”
 
“The remote and immediate cause of terrorism in Nigeria,” he observed, “are rooted in the inherited structure of our country, its porous borders, and acts of bad governance of the post independence era.”
 
He added that “President Jonathan is now having to face the consequences of acts of omission or commission of the previous regimes, but part of his transformation agenda is to root out the fundamental defects in our politics, economy and society.”
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