Jonathan Not Booed In South Africa – Abati

                                      
The Presidency has denied reports that President Goodluck Jonathan was booed in South Africa at the weekend over handling of the rescue effort for the over 200 secondary school girls abducted in Chibok, Borno State.


Speaking on the trip to South Africa, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said that the reports are another attempt to discredit Jonathan’s administration.
According to him, the people of South Africa showed much appreciation of President Jonathan’s presence at the inauguration ceremony and also received great hospitality in South Africa.
He said: “Nigeria and South Africa of course as you know are two friendly and brotherly countries with very strong bilateral relations in many areas including trade and investments, diplomacy, immigration, customs, security issues, power and all of that. And in the last three years the relationship between both countries has even grown stronger and has also been helped by the personal good relationship between both President Jonathan and President Zuma which is why it is on unfortunate on our arrival I read one or two reports alleging that the President was jeered at the inauguration ceremony.”
“This is absolutely untrue and those who are peddling that kind of misinformation are being unfair, they are being uncharitable and it fits into an ongoing attempt to throw just about anything at this administration in attempt to discredit the administration.
“If anything what we see, what we witnessed in South Africa is that the people of South Africa showed much appreciation of President Jonathan presence at the inauguration ceremony and President Jonathan received great hospitality in terms of the response from the people.”
Abati added : “The whole world recognizes that the challenge that we face in Nigeria at the moment in relation to the abduction of the girls and the challenge of terrorism; yes the outrage is shared both by Nigerians and other people all over the world but the world also realizes that terrorism is a global challenge and this administration continues to show a great resolve to deal with the problem.”
“And the momentum is on and you know the message from government is that, government is saying categorically, No to Boko Haram, No to terrorism and the people of Nigeria are calling on the terrorists to release the girls.
“And government is saying that it will do everything within its power, explore all options, leave no stone unturned to ensure that our girls are brought back. In that regards there is a meeting of minds and Nigerians can be very sure that President Jonathan is really committed to this effort to ensure that the girls are brought back and safely too,” he added

The Nation