Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former Special Adviser on Political Matters to President Bola Tinubu, has revealed that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, initially dismissed reports of the abduction of over 270 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State.

Speaking during an interview on TVC on Thursday, Baba-Ahmed shed new light on the events that followed the infamous April 14, 2014, kidnapping by Boko Haram insurgents.

The attack saw 276 girls taken from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, sparking global outrage and the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

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While many of the abducted girls have been rescued or escaped over the years, dozens remain unaccounted for.

“Chibok wasn’t blackmail of Jonathan, it was real. He and his wife didn’t believe it,” Baba-Ahmed stated.

“As we speak, Chibok girls are still missing and nobody can say where they are. Let’s not make light of this.”

The former presidential aide dismissed claims that the abduction was staged to discredit the Jonathan administration, insisting the tragedy was genuine and poorly handled by the government at the time.

He criticized Jonathan’s approach to national security, labeling it weak and ineffective.

“Jonathan served for six years, and his handling of the security situation was very weak,” he said.

“It was under him that we had a full-blown Boko Haram.”

Baba-Ahmed lamented that Nigeria is yet to produce leaders willing to confront the nation’s worsening insecurity head-on.

“I think we haven’t had leaders who will take on security headlong,” he added.

“Some of those Chibok girls were taken from their families, and nobody knows where they are.”