New York Post Rubbishes Jonathan’s Image Laundering Article on Washington Post

On June 26, the Washington Post published an article written by President Goodluck Jonathan ostensibly to appease the international community who has variously criticised him for the handling of the abducted chibok girls more than 2 months ago.

The article titled ‘Nothing is more important than bringing home Nigeria’s missing girls by Goodluck Jonathan‘, is said to be the beginning of a $1.2 million U.S. Dollar-image laundering deal cut with a Levick, Washington-based Public Relations 

But why Jonathan may be basking in the euphoria the article has so far generated, the New York Times is not particularly impressed with what Jonathan stated in his article.

In response, the New York Times has this to say.

When in April the Islamist group Boko Haram abducted nearly 300 girls from their school in northeast Nigeria, it commanded global attention and sparked a #BringBackOurGirls movement.

But the girls are still missing. The campaign seems to have moved from hashtag ­demands to ­newspaper column ­diplomacy. On Friday, The Washington Post carried an op-ed by no less than the ­president of Nigeria himself, Goodluck Jonathan.

In it he wrote, “Something positive can come out of [this situation] in Nigeria.” He says, “Most important, the return of the Chibok girls, but also new international cooperation to deny havens to terrorists and destroy their organizations.”

And he says he’s going to ask the UN General Assembly to establish and coordinate a system to share intelligence, etc.

Remember, this is the same leader whose military initially claimed it had freed the girls, whose wife’s anger was directed at Nigerians protesting the government’s inaction rather than the kidnappers and who presides over Africa’s largest economy and fourth-largest armed forces.