Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, Britain, has described President Goodluck Jonathan as the weakest president in Nigeria’s history.

Dowdon made the assessment in an article published in The Telegraph which dwelt on the running saga of over 200 female students abducted by Boko Haram terrorists from a boarding school in the North-East state of Borno on April 14.

He wrote in the article entitled ‘Nigerian schoolgirls: Boko Haram’s kidnappers thrive in a land without law’: “When news broke of the kidnapping of the girls from a boarding school at Chibok, people began to question the Nigerian government about the incident. President Goodluck Jonathan did not seem to understand what the fuss was about. While a US presidential spokesman in Washington described the incident as “an outrage”, President Jonathan mumbled that it was “unfortunate”. He was later photographed visiting a victim of Boko Haram – the Islamist militant group that has claimed responsibility for the schoolgirls’ abduction – looking away with his hand in his pocket.

“A reaction of such indifference partly explains the growing success of Boko Haram.”

Dowdon dismissed Jonathan as “a southern Christian from the Delta who has been the weakest Nigerian president so far,” accusing him of allegedly mismanaging the Boko Haram crisis, necessitating the intervention of foreign powers in an on-going bid to find the kidnapped schoolgirls.

•Photo shows President Goodluck Jonathan.