Boko Haram: Opposition sabotaged Jonathan’s efforts to get foreign arms – Ex-Minister

Aminu Wali, Foreign Affairs Minister under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, has revealed the role played by opposition politicians and parties in sabotaging the war on terror.

According to him, the opposition elements vilified the Jonathan administration needlessly and succeeded in painting the government in a bad light.

He said that this convinced the United States and other foreign governments not to sell arms to Nigeria.

“You see, we discussed the problem of Boko Haram with various countries especially those who are in a position to give us some kind of support. But unfortunately, the approach in Nigeria now, which I believe it is still when it comes to insecurity in the country, the opposition (parties) wants to always be blasting the sitting government.

“They don’t give the right support and advice. They portray the whole thing as the fault of the government such that the western countries fell for this kind of propaganda, and we entered lots of problems.

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“For example, we (wanted) cobra helicopters from the U.S. they refused to sell it to us during my time. We headed elsewhere to get these helicopters. I visited Turkey. They said they are willing to sell to us those types of aircraft but, unfortunately, they cannot go ahead and sell to us because the engines are American, therefore, they have to have a license from the US. But the U.S. was not prepared to help,” Wali told Premium Times.

The ex-minister noted that the US was more interested in the 2015 election holding than in helping Nigeria out with arms needed to combat Boko Haram.

“They said is the election going to happen? I said yes. As far as they were concerned, they were not interested (in the request), all they were interested in was a change of government,” Wali stated.

He explained that despite this, the Jonathan administration brought Boko Haram insurgency to a standstill until things started to get bad when President Muhammadu Buhari took over.