Former President Goodluck Jonathan has raised fresh concerns over the Boko Haram insurgency, alleging that external forces are arming the group with advanced weapons.
Jonathan spoke on Friday, October 3, at the public presentation of SCARS: Nigeria’s Journey and the Boko Haram Conundrum, a memoir by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor.
He praised Irabor as “a soldier who stood for truth and never played politics with security,” before reflecting on the enduring scars of insurgency during his administration.
“The title of this book is quite interesting. 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,” Jonathan said.
The former President stressed that Boko Haram’s continued survival proves the crisis is far deeper than commonly understood.
“We must approach Boko Haram differently. The carrot and stick method may be required to address this insurgency,” he added.
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Jonathan warned that the group’s firepower points to foreign involvement.
“Sometimes they even had more munitions than our soldiers. That does not reflect the actions of hungry villagers,” he said. “External hands are clearly involved in sustaining them.”
He recalled that the insurgency began in 2009 under late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua when he was Vice President, and intensified under his watch.
“I battled Boko Haram for five years as President. I thought Buhari would wipe them out quickly, but they remain,” he explained.
The abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in 2014, which sparked global outrage and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, remains Jonathan’s most haunting legacy. While 189 girls have been rescued or freed, more than 80 are still missing.
Civil society groups had accused Jonathan’s government of slow response and poor coordination, but he defended his caution at the time, insisting it was to safeguard sensitive intelligence operations.
A decade later, survivors continue to face trauma, stigma, and shattered dreams, while the Federal Government maintains that rescuing the remaining Chibok girls and Leah Sharibu remains a national priority.