Opinion
Nigeria is one of the most interesting places to be a journalist. And, I must add, one of the most exasperating and depressing places to practice the pen profession. On the positive side, there is almost always a stream of outlandish developments to put on newspaper covers, and comment on. But, on the sad side, the stories emerging from these shores are mostly negative.
If scores of corpses are not being thrown up from one river somewhere in the Eastern part of the country, “a ritualists’ den” will be discovered somewhere in the South West. When these do not happen, a bomb will likely go off in the Federal Capital City, Abuja, killing scores of people, or Boko Haram would blow up a market somewhere in the North-East geo-political zone of the country. When these do not happen, an irredentist, somewhere, is likely to be blowing off his tongue with wild allegations against President Goodluck Jonathan. The federal government, also, does not seem to help matters with its lacklustre handling of the Boko Haram disaster and many other problems in the country. These mostly negative happenings in the country, that are hardly ever satisfactorily resolved, are quite troubling and dampening to the spirit.
To cap them all, recently, a yet to be agreed on number of girls were kidnapped from a secondary school in Chibok, said to be about 14 miles from the dreaded Sambisa forest, a well known hideout of Boko Haram in Borno State. Can anyone just imagine the fate of these young girls being held in a forest in the midst of Boko Haram elements?
Beautiful little lambs in the midst of ravenous wolves! Can anyone imagine the girls said to be aged between 16 and 18 years who had likely lived well protected lives in the homes of their parents and their boarding schools now living in open tents and battling for their lives in the midst of both animal and human predators? Can you imagine the anguish of their parents and all other persons who bother to spare a thought for their sorry fate?
Beyond the sad fate of these girls are the many nibbling questions that suggest that the full truth has not really been told about this unfortunate incident. For example, against the background of the abduction of 14 girls that are yet to be found from a secondary school in Buni Yadi, earlier in the year, who authorized the bringing together of the Chibok girls to that apparently vulnerable location?
This question is quite germane, more so since the security agencies have said they were not notified that the girls were in the place. Is it possible that whoever authorized their coming so close to Sambisa forest was unaware that they could be abducted? Or, were they brought there purposely to be abducted? It is certainly preposterous and tendentious to have kept the girls at that vulnerable location with only two security officials on ground, and without any notification to the security agencies. Meanwhile, it is these security agencies that are now bearing the brunt of the negative backlash of the girls’ abduction.
Again, what is the actual number of the abducted girls? We have moved from 100, to 129 and now to 230, or thereabouts. One of the latest reports said the principal was now being asked the number of the students, and that the figure would also likely be determined by the number of meals served to the schoolgirls in the evening before they were abducted. The question is, is it possible that a school principal and the administrative authorities of a school would not know the number of students on the premises, even if some were said to have left after their examination? What manner of school administration method is that which will make a school unable to determine the number of students on the premises?
There is also, of course, the controversy on the number of students that escaped from their abductors and the number that are still in captivity. The Nigerian military, which was initially quick to tell the nation the “story” of how it rescued the girls, with the exception of eight, in a joint operation with herdsmen, has since recanted. The principal of the school, who was said to have claimed that only eight students were yet to be rescued, denied ever saying such a thing. Some sources in the military have been reported to have alleged that the recant of the principal came after interaction with certain interests in Borno State.. By a simple stretch of the imagination, the picture that is being painted is that certain authorities may be complicit in the plan to use the girls as human shields to prevent a massive bombing of the Sambisa forest. For these interests, the higher the number of the girls believed to have been abducted, the better for their purpose.
But the real question remains: How many girls were actually kidnapped? Why is it difficult to know the number, 14 days after the incident? The school authorities should be made to give a definite number of the girls, and back it up with documents. Boarding houses are not owanbe parties where people move in and out without proper records of their movement.
The bottomline, however, is the rescue of the girls, no matter their number. What is this news going around that security agents know where the girls are but can’t bombard the place because of the safety of the girls? Why were the places not bombarded before the girls were abducted by Boko Haram? All these news paint the picture that while Boko Haram is a serious issue that has been giving Nigerians sleeplessness nights, it may just be a game to our security agencies. I do not know what else can be made of reports that the parents of the girls and security officials entered the forests and saw the Boko Haram insurgents afar off in their tents, but had to retreat on the advice of the security agents who said it would be unsafe to go further to confront the insurgents. What this suggests is that our security agencies know where these insurgents are, all along, but are either not inclined to, or capable, of tackling them frontally. If so, and if reports of the ill-preparedness of our military to confront Boko Haram is to be believed, what shall we say has been happening to the billions of naira voted for the defence sector in recent years? What shall we also say has been done to convince neighbouring countries which are said be harbouring the insurgents to desist from doing so?
The only way forward is to rescue these girls expeditiously. It is rather unfortunate that their abduction into the forest has made the battle against Boko Haram more difficult.
But, this is one battle that Nigeria must win. I share the pains of the parents of those girls, and I am of the view that Nigeria, as a nation, can never give up the abducted young ones. Find them, we must. So, let the relevant authorities get cracking. Whether by dialogue or battle, find them we must.
It is, however, good that the latest Boko Haram onslaught has brought Nigerian politicians together in the quest to end this insurgency. Even General Muhammadu Buhari, archrival of the Jonathan Presidency, has released vocal missiles against the insurgents and encouragement to President Jonathan. Let all other politicians join hands with the government to bring this Boko Haram menace to an end. Nigeria, as often said, is the only country that most of us have. All hands must, therefore, be on deck to salvage it together.
Source: Sun Online News Crescent University Mirror(Posted by Oguntayo Ezekiel, Editorial Department)
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