Goodluck Jonathan: David Cameron hated me because I refused to legalise homosexuality

Cameron in his book titled, ‘For the Record’, had alleged that some British troops offered to rescue the abducted Chibok girls after spotting their location, but Jonathan refused.

The former Prime Minister also said that Nigerian Army was unable to participate in the operations organised by the US and the UK to rescue the girls because generals were politically appointed.

Responding to the allegations in a statement, Jonathan said Cameron has been nursing grudges against him since he refused to legalise same sex marriage in Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan met with some of the girls that escaped in July 2014 [Wole Emmanuel/AFP/Getty] Pulse Nigeria

He said, “I do, however, know that Mr. Cameron has long nursed deep grudges against me for reasons that have been published in various media.

“On July 24, 2013, while celebrating the passage of the United Kingdom’s Marriage (Same Sex \Couples) Act, 2013, Mr. Cameron said “I want to export gay marriage around the world”At that occasion, he boasted that he would send the team that successfully drafted and promoted the ill, to nations, like Nigeria, saying inter alia: ‘I’ve told the Bill team I’m now going to reassign them because, of course, all over the world people would have been watching this piece of legislation.’

“As President of Nigeria at that time, I came under almost unbearable pressure from the Cameron administration to pass legislation supporting LGBTQ Same Sex marriage in Nigeria. My conscience could not stomach that, because as President of Nigeria, I swore on the Bible to advance Nigeria’s interests, and not the interest of the United Kingdom or any foreign power.

“As such, on Monday, January 13, 2014, I signed the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into law after the Bill had been passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Nigeria’s parliament, in line with the wishes of the Nigerian people. This happened shortly after a study of 39 nations around the world by the U.S. Pew Research Center came up with a finding which indicated that 98 percent of Nigerians were opposed to the idea of Gay Marriage.

“Immediately after I took this patriotic action, my government came under almost unbearable pressure from Mr. Cameron, who reached me through envoys, and made subtle and not so subtle threats against me and my government.

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. (India Today) ece-auto-gen

The ex-president also said Cameron’s claim that he appointed generals based on political considerations is a lie, saying he appointed people based on their professional pedigree.

Jonathan wondered how Cameron claimed he appointed his service chiefs politically when he had to sack them twice in five years to show how much he wanted them to defeat Boko Haram terrorists in the country.

He said, “He accused me of appointing Generals based on political considerations. How could that be when I fired my service chiefs twice in five years, to show that I would not tolerate anything less than meaningful progress in the war on terror.”

“I was completely blind to ethnic or political considerations in my appointments. In civil and military matters, I appointed people that I had never even met prior to appointing them, based on their professional pedigree. Though I was from the South, most of my service chiefs came from the North.

On the issue of corruption, Jonathan said Cameron is not competent enough to rate his administration.

The ex-president said during his administration in 2014, Nigeria made her best ever improvement on the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, moving from 144 the previous year, to 136, an 8 point improvement.