Chibok Girls Abduction Remains a Lifelong Scar – Goodluck Jonathan
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has described the 2014 abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls as a permanent scar on his legacy — one he says he will carry to the grave.
Jonathan made the remarks on Friday during the public unveiling of SCARS: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a memoir authored by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor.
Praising Irabor’s military service, Jonathan called him “a soldier who stood for truth and never played politics with security.”
Reflecting on the most painful moments of his presidency, Jonathan admitted that the kidnapping of 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, remains a deep and unforgettable wound.
“The title of this book is quite fitting,” he said. “One of the major scars on my government is the Chibok girls. As Bishop Kukah said, no plastic or cosmetic surgeon can remove it. It is a scar I will die with.”
The abduction drew international condemnation and gave rise to the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, which mobilized global attention. While some of the girls have since been rescued or escaped, over 80 remain unaccounted for more than a decade later.
Jonathan recounted that the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009 while he was Vice President under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, but escalated dramatically during his time in office.
“I battled Boko Haram for five years as President,” he said. “I thought Buhari would wipe them out quickly, but they remain. The insurgency is far more complex than many assume.”
He called for a reassessment of Nigeria’s approach to counterterrorism, suggesting that a dual strategy of force and dialogue might be necessary.
“The carrot and stick method may be required to address this insurgency,” he noted.
The former President also raised concerns about the level of weaponry in Boko Haram’s arsenal, which he suggested could not have come from local sources.
“Sometimes they even had more munitions than our soldiers. That does not reflect the actions of hungry villagers,” Jonathan stated, pointing to possible external involvement in the group’s operations.
Jonathan’s government faced intense criticism over its handling of the Chibok incident, particularly for its delayed public response and hesitance to accept foreign assistance. Civil society groups accused his administration of poor crisis coordination and politicizing the tragedy.
He, however, defended the initial silence, claiming it was to protect sensitive intelligence operations underway at the time.
Over the years, successive administrations have rescued or negotiated the release of at least 189 of the abducted girls. Many of the survivors have since faced trauma, stigma, and interrupted education—some returning with children born in captivity.
The Nigerian government maintains that recovering the remaining Chibok girls, along with Leah Sharibu and others still held by insurgents, remains a national priority.
