Boko Haram Funding: We Thought It Was France – Akinyemi

Nigeria’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinyemi, has said the committee he served on that looked at operations of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, thought it was France that was sponsoring the terrorist group.

Naija News reported that United States lawmaker, Scott Perry, alleged that United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds were used to finance Boko Haram.

In an interview with Arise News on Monday, Professor Akinyemi said Nigeria would be right to believe the revelation of Perry.

He stated that as a US lawmaker, Perry has access to classified documents of the United States.

“Look in this murky world of intelligence, Secret Service, what have you. You will never get the proof unless documents are classified. That’s what we call deep-state operations. All I can tell you is when I was serving on that Boko Haram committee, there were things we were told, which I then found alarming.

“But as I said, my focus was on the French because it is the French that have had this tradition of trying to destabilize Nigeria. Dollars that were found on these Boko Haram people. There was an episode where a helicopter crashed in one of these northern states. And it was plenty of dollars that was scattered all over the place.

“Now that doesn’t mean that it was the Americans who were on that plane because there are so many organizations who use the dollar, and I will not be surprised if various security or intelligence organizations or people who are involved in all these dark shade operations will use the dollar to cover their tracks and so on. So it does not mean.

“And that’s why I didn’t jump immediately that it’s the American until this congressman said it. Now if I’m not going to believe the congressman about operation and this a congressman who has access to their own data, He may have his own motive for what he’s saying and for what he’s doing and for why he’s saying this. But if I’m not going to believe him and on the grounds of that, we then end up with we don’t know.

“Then who will we believe? Then even when we see, documents that are declassified, how will we ensure that whoever wrote those document is telling the truth. You see, we are not going to get 100% certainty when you are dealing with intelligence operatives and what they are putting down on paper. Some trying to cover their tracks. Some trying to implicate the others,” he said.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, however, regretted that there was little Nigeria could do on the allegation.

“As regards to your question, what do we do now? Believe me and this is the most depressing part of this. There is nothing we can do. You are dealing with a superpower whose tentacles spread all over the world. I’m not saying this about Americans alone. I’m saying this about MIC to the British. I’m saying this about the French. I’m saying this about the, who? The Chinese.

“All these are superpowers whose tentacles are global and spread all over the world. There’s nothing you can you can do about them. You you, you know, you put out one candle. Do you know how many candles that there are? How many of them are operating? Is the one that you know that you focus on, but there are others, many others,” he added.