{"id":122746,"date":"2025-10-05T04:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=122746"},"modified":"2025-10-05T04:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:01:22","slug":"jonathan-denies-linking-buhari-to-boko-haram-says-comments-misrepresented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/jonathan-denies-linking-buhari-to-boko-haram-says-comments-misrepresented\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Denies Linking Buhari to Boko Haram, Says Comments Misrepresented"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed reports suggesting he accused the late President Muhammadu Buhari of having ties with\u00a0 Boko Haram.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a statement on Saturday, Jonathan\u2019s media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, described the reports as \u201cfalse and misleading,\u201d insisting that the former president\u2019s remarks at the launch of a book by retired Defence Chief, General Lucky Irabor, were deliberately twisted.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe attention of the Office of Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has been drawn to misleading reports\u2026 suggesting that Dr Jonathan alleged that Boko Haram nominated the late President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to represent them in dialogue with the Federal Government, and therefore this made him somehow complicit in the Boko Haram crisis,\u201d the statement read.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe wish to make it abundantly clear that the former President\u2019s comments were grossly misrepresented. At no time did Dr Jonathan suggest, imply, or insinuate that President Buhari had any connection with Boko Haram or that he supported the group in any form.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jonathan clarified that his comments referred to a documented episode where Boko Haram falsely named prominent Nigerians as potential mediators without their consent, an act he described as part of the group\u2019s strategy to \u201csow confusion and undermine public confidence in government.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He further argued that it was illogical to link Buhari to Boko Haram, noting that if the sect truly chose him as a mediator, their insurgency should have ended when Buhari became president in 2015.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe former president\u2019s position was that if indeed Buhari was their choice negotiator, why didn\u2019t Boko Haram expeditiously bring their evil terrorist agenda to an end when the retired General became president?\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jonathan stressed that both he and Buhari were targets of Boko Haram attacks and had taken firm stands against terrorism during their administrations.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cFor the avoidance of doubt, Dr Jonathan recognises that President Muhammadu Buhari, like every patriotic Nigerian, stood firmly against terrorism and was himself a target of Boko Haram violence. Both men, during their respective tenures, shared a common commitment to restoring peace and stability to Nigeria.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said his remarks were meant to highlight Boko Haram\u2019s deceitful tactics, not to indict Buhari.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDr Jonathan\u2019s remarks, made in the course of a broader discussion on Nigeria\u2019s security challenges, were meant to illustrate the deviousness and manipulative strategies employed by Boko Haram in their early years,\u201d the statement added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jonathan concluded by warning against politically motivated distortions of history, which he said only serve to divide Nigerians and weaken the fight against insecurity.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed reports suggesting he accused the late President Muhammadu Buhari of having ties with\u00a0 Boko Haram. In a statement on Saturday, Jonathan\u2019s&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jonathan Denies Linking Buhari to Boko Haram, Says Comments Misrepresented - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/jonathan-denies-linking-buhari-to-boko-haram-says-comments-misrepresented\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jonathan Denies Linking Buhari to Boko Haram, Says Comments Misrepresented - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed reports suggesting he accused the late President Muhammadu Buhari of having ties with\u00a0 Boko Haram. 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