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Tag: Chibok girls

  • Chibok: Presidency, Igbo group fault Northern elders’ position

    Chibok: Presidency, Igbo group fault Northern elders’ position

    The Presidency on Tuesday flayed the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) for demanding that President Goodluck Jonathan rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls or forfeit his 2015 re-election bid.

    The NEF had given Jonathan a two-month ultimatum within which to rescue the girls.

    The over 200 Chibok school girls were abducted by the Boko Haram sect since April 14 and have since been in the sect captivity.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Dr. Doyin Okupe, retorted that the President did not require such threat or ultimatum to be alive to his responsibilities.

    “The issue of insurgency, especially those ideologically based on Islamic extremism is a global phenomenon and requires tact, military capability, serious de-radicalisation techniques and community based counter insurgency programmes to ensure success,” Okupe stated.

    The presidential aide said the administration was doing everything possible to ensure that the girls are rescued alive, adding that the various measures adopted by the government would soon yield positive result.

    “We are improving on our operational capabilities and efficiencies by acquiring more advanced weapons and technologies for our military and security agencies.

    “We have drafted more military personnel to the region to strengthen the fighting power of our armed forces.

    “We are taking advantage of the offers from our international military and intelligence allies to assist in identifying key locations.

    “We are working with our neighbours to secure the borders and limit the movements of the Boko Haram fighters, building on the agreements reached at the recent summits in Paris and London.

    “We are deploying more resources to maximize operational efficiency, acquire more advanced and relevant weaponry and boost the general morale of our combatants. This is why the government recently requested for an additional funding of $1billion.

    “And the last piece in the puzzle is targeting the domestic and international funding, and stopping the money flows into the coffers of the terrorists.

    “With all these efforts and the support of our allies, these steps will help fight the threat of the Boko haram and move us closer to bringing the girls back safely,” the statement added.

    Also on Tuesday, a pro Igbo group, the Igbo Redemption Group (IRG) joined issues with the northern elders over the matter, saying their position was unreasonable, unpatriotic, divisive and unfortunate.

    Briefing journalists in Abuja, the leader the IRG, Chief Delly Ajufo, said the northern elders’ position had confirmed the suspicion that the kidnap of the girls was meant to prevent President Jonathan from seeking re-election.

    “Statements like these coming from people who cannot lay claim to any significant contribution to the growth and development of Northern Nigeria is nothing but a mark of desperation which we hopefully assume does not represent the views of right thinking leaders of the North,” Ajufo said.

  • ‘Chibok girls’ abduction sad and sensational‘

    ‘Chibok girls’ abduction sad and sensational‘

    As Bishop of Oyo Diocese, located hundreds of kilometres from North Eastern Nigeria, the epicentre of the current Boko Haram terrorist activities, my analysis of the situation in Nigeria is bound to be somewhat detached. I submit these views however for two particular reasons. First, as Chairman of the Communications Apostolate for the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria I often interact with the Bishops who live on the frontline areas of the insurgence on a daily basis and have a fair idea of their pains. Secondly, in Oyo diocese Catholics coexist with a very large population of Muslims. We are only about 45,000 Catholics among about 1million Muslims with whom we thankfully enjoy cordial coexistence. This consists of occasional exchange of ideas, gifts and visits, intermarriages and mutual interaction in each other’s social events. The Boko Haram insurgency and the kidnap of the Chibok girls have often been issues of discussion between me and some Muslim leaders. The murderous activities of the group are as alien to some of the Muslim leaders as they are to me.

    Nigeria’s woes have been coming for some time –a combination of misuse of power, resources and capacities for decades past and the near total disregard for the rule of law, provoking layers of unreserved resentments in the past in accumulated suffering and bewilderment in the nation. The insurgency which at this moment strangulates the country and has bloodied its face at home and in the international community is actually not the result of a sudden explosion of conflict and aggression. It is the outcome of many warning signs which had been neglected by the authorities at a time in which it was widely believed, prompt action could have been taken to salvage the situation. The betrayal of the Nigerian nation does seem to have been carried out with considerable help from some segments of the international community and powers.

    Importation of arms into the country, some of which were occasionally intercepted, had been a source of worry for many people and for a number of years, provoking sufficient outcry for groups and individuals. There were strong allegations about some countries even using Nigeria as a safe passageway for the arms trade. Even the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) spoke out on the issue at national and regional levels. Scant attention was paid to those calls and no credible arrests were ever made.

    The same can be said for the problem of unemployment. The teeming unemployed and unemployable population in the North of Nigeria which has been a perennial problem in the nation has often brought government to raise questionable policies and mindboggling sums of money ostensibly to tackle the problem. Such effort has often been suffocated by corruption, political patronage and bad management with little result and much resentment from other parts of Nigeria having other no less challenging problems but getting much less attention. The same kind of resentment is incubated all over the country owing to unresolved issues and problems.

    The general opinion among Christians in the North is that the Boko Haram insurgency is a child of powerful northern politicians who had armed some young thugs for their selfish interest. These then got radicalized and have run amok killing anyone who tickles their fancy going beyond even the control of their originators. It has however become very clear that what Nigeria is facing in the insurgency is, more than just a bunch of thugs, but a well-trained army of criminals who are able to disconcert and demoralise even the Nigerian army by the strategy of their warfare and their weaponry.

    Boko Haram has largely targeted Christians, Christian institutions and churches over a period of time. This may be true but the entire movement has also gathered a lot of moss along the way destroying government structures, facilities and wiping out entire villages. There is talk these days about political, religious, economic and other versions of Boko Haram suggesting the differing interests which might hide under Boko Haram to gain mileage in a brutal way. This does not diminish the heavy losses which Christians are suffering. In Maiduguri Diocese alone for example, over 40 churches, priests’ residences and church structures have been totally destroyed with the dead Catholic members alone put at over 400. Thousands are injured and displaced, physically and emotionally as well.

    The sad and sensational abduction of nearly 300 girls from Chibok gone for over 100 days now stands as a tragic icon of lawlessness and insecurity in North Eastern Nigeria. More people have been abducted and kidnapped by Boko Haram and others since. The general impression is that the group is heavily sponsored from outside the country and enjoys sympathy and sponsorship even among people in government and the security agencies. This much has unfortunately been admitted even by government officials in Nigeria. Had it not been so Nigerians question the possibility of anyone abducting such a large number of people, with no one seeing or noticing a thing with the security agencies totally helpless. Neither did the sluggish and contradictory responses from government quarters help matters.

    In other words it has become extremely difficult if not impossible to differentiate what interests are really being served or targeted by the attacks. It is so bad that two recent bomb blasts in the city of Kaduna were allegedly targeted at a popular Islamic cleric and a main opposition party leader who also is a Muslim, fortunately without success. Muslim leaders have been brutally slaughtered and quite a number of Catholics would swear that there are periods of the insurgency when far more Muslims are slaughtered than are Christians. Indeed to most Catholics what does it really matter what the religion of those who died may be? Bombs thrown in public places really do not distinguish who gets killed nor what religion or tribe gets affected. The eloquent testimony of John Cardinal Onayekan of Abuja in forging peaceful coexistence and that of the Archbishop of Jos and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Most Reverend Ignatius Ayau Kaigama deserves attention. The latter has set up a programme to cater for Muslim and Christian young people so that they can relate and learn together as to reduce the rancor, mutual suspicion and vengefulness among them.

    The endemic corruption in Nigeria is the hydra headed monster that fuels the insurgency most. Corruption has been described in many terms in Nigeria as extreme, endemic, institutional and even pervasive. One would be at pains to successfully discount any of these ideas. The frustration and resentment which this has generated has turned many into willing elements for any kind of mischief as a way of getting back at the system and those who operate it in Nigeria. Nigeria’s leadership seems to have perfected the art of evasiveness in addressing the issues and playing the victim whenever dissenting voices are raised.

    However, the times do not allow for mudslinging or trading of blames. They call for constructive, inspirational criticism and action to give hope to the youth for they must be given the motivation to refuse to be conquered by despair. The positive side to the tragedy of the insurgency, if it can be so stated, is that it has increased the solidarity/charity character of the Nigerian Catholic Church. Many dioceses have taken up the support for the affected places and families in a way that could hardly be imagined before.

    I am convinced that there are forces and groups trying to make hay in this turbulence to give religion a bad name. The impression being created often is that Christianity is under persecution in Nigeria but there is no such official position. Many people are getting the message that religion itself is a problem and a cause of conflict. Given the deep religious character of African communities this is a very dangerous impression. It is important to highlight more and more the good that religion and religious people have done and continue to do in the daily life of people, in conflict resolution, development and nation building. This is often missing in the media and public discourse.  Coming from my part of Nigeria there have always been deep relationships between Muslims and Christians and adherents of other religions with intermarriages and co-habitations quite commonplace. I myself have majority of my household as Muslims and most of our schools have a majority of Muslim children and students in them.

    It is important to enlist as many people as possible behind the effort to bring about peace and inspire them to be more vocal and direct about those efforts. Creating a better society can also be a game of numbers. Similarly the cultural strength of African communities in accommodating different religious perspectives must be brought to the fore and promoted. This will require planning, commitment and resources. The media generally cannot claim to be contributing to world development and peace without prioritizing this dimension of their work.

    While attention is focused on the plight of the Chibok girls who have been abducted perhaps just as much attention should be given to the plight of hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths who will never get an education or of thousands of others who could never be sure when they begin or end their educational programmes. Their lives have somewhat been abducted as well by the damage that has been inflicted on the country through corruption and bad leadership. The present administration cannot be held responsible for all the mess but it must be held responsible for not courageously confronting the cankerworm of corruption even in spite of its modest achievements.

    It is my opinion that the entire Nigerian problem is about power and the politics of personalities currently being played out in the country. Such tyrants must be stopped in their careless wastage of human lives. There seems to be much hypocrisy in the concern of the international community in helping to solve the problem so far as has been in many problems of conflict in Africa. How come no one is asking where all the arms used for the killing and destruction in Africa and in Nigeria in particular, come from? Who is buying and selling them and who really is benefitting from the growing destabilisation of Nigeria and of Africa at large. And is it really impossible to trace the source of funding for Boko Haram and other insurgencies and wars in Africa, in such a forensically efficient world? These are questions that leave a lot of weight on the consciences of the Western countries who dispose of the most modern means of development and of destruction. Finding answers and acting positively is the only way to rouse the ailing Nigerian giant.

  • Chibok girls: Protesters accuse Jonathan of doublespeak

    Chibok girls: Protesters accuse Jonathan of doublespeak

    Protesters of the #BringBackOurGirls movement have said President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement in Washington DC, United States (U.S) on his negotiations with the Boko Haram sect is doublespeak.

    They said the U.S government’s claim about locating the girls was not news to Nigerians since the nation had been told of the same story several times while the girls remained in captivity.

    The protesters said it appeared the world had forgotten about the innocent girls.

    They faulted the statement of the Council of State that insurgency would end by December.

    It urged the government to tell the world how it intends to achieve the feat in the face of escalated attacks in the Northeast in the past several months.

    They also debunked speculations of the Chibok girls’ involvement in the recent suicide attacks, adding that associating them with the despicable crime was an act of victimisation.

    The protesters addressed reporters yesterday in Abuja to mark their 100th days of sittings and 115th days after the abduction of the Chibok girls.

    A member of the group, Maureen Kabrik, who read the statement, said the movement had credible information about an imminent attack on their sittings at the Abuja rendezvous.

    She urged security agencies to protect the protesters from molestation.

    According to her, the protesters are not planning to stop their agitation until the girls are rescued.

    Kabrik said: “Today marks day 115 since the abduction of over 200 girls from the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, while they were sitting for their final examinations. The world seems to have moved on, as we note with concern the lack of evidence to back the statements by the government that all is being done to rescue our girls.

    “We also note the statements credited to the U.S Government over the sighting of the girls in July. Knowing the location of the girls is a positive development. But this is not the first time Nigerians have been told that the location of the girls is already known.

    “We also note the ambiguity in the statement credited to the President (Jonathan) in Washington DC that efforts to negotiate with the insurgents are ongoing, even though the earlier position of the government had been that it would not negotiate with Boko Haram. It is this ambiguity and doublespeak, which gives our movement great cause for concern about the sincerity of the effort to rescue the abducted girls.

    “At its meeting on July 30, the Council of State promised that the insurgency in the Northeast would end by December 2014. We call on the government to provide adequate information on how this is to be achieved, considering that the insurgency in the Northeast has only escalated in the past several months and previous assurances by the government and its functionaries have not produced any results.

    “We urge the government to scale up its efforts in the rescue operation, to ensure that this debacle comes to an end. This is because of the separation of the innocent girls from their grieving parents. Their education has come to a standstill, as they remain in captivity with the insurgents. Worse still, their continued stay in captivity has given room for unfounded speculations about the role the girls are purported to have played in recent suicide attacks.”

  • ‘Chibok girls deserve continued attention’

    ‘Chibok girls deserve continued attention’

    USA Today, in an editorial on Tuesday, queried President Goodluck Jonathan’s response to enquiries about the Chibok girls at the ongoing U.S.-African Leaders Summit in Washington DC. As far as the newspaper is concerned, the president’s response does not inspire confidence

    When a vicious militant group kidnapped nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls in April, much of the world was outraged. The Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls went viral, spawning broad concern from people around the globe — and smug derision from critics of digital advocacy.

    Four months later, about 60 of the girls have managed to escape and the rest remain missing. The world has mostly moved on, distracted by such events as wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the shoot down of a Malaysian jetliner and the immigration crisis at the U.S. border.

    But amid all the horrors that regularly compete for the world’s attention, this one shouldn’t be forgotten.

    For one thing, the teenage captives are symbols of the importance of educating girls. They were all seized after returning to school in a dangerous area to take their final exams. Among them are future lawyers, doctors and teachers — women who could someday help lead their country.

    For another, there’s evidence that the international uproar might have helped raise the cost of harming the girls too high even for Boko Haram, an extremist group that regularly kidnaps and kills in its quest to bring a brutal form of fundamentalist Islam to parts of Africa.

    The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that U.S. surveillance flights spotted large groups of girls, suspected of being the captives, in remote parts of Nigeria. That dovetails with reports that Boko Haram — whose name means “Western education is forbidden” — is treating at least some of the kidnapped girls with unusual care.

    Leaders of the group, after first warning that the girls would be sold into slavery, later offered to trade them for Boko Haram prisoners held by the Nigerian government. The world’s focus on the girls has made them both valuable pawns and risky victims.

    The response of the Nigerian government, which has often seemed overmatched in its five-year struggle with Boko Haram, doesn’t inspire much confidence. President Goodluck Jonathan at first largely ignored the incident, then claimed activists invented it, and finally yielded to pressure to accept international assistance.

    Jonathan, in Washington this week for a U.S.-Africa summit, says his government is making every effort to find the girls. But he offers no evidence, is dismissive of the foreign help and argues that divulging any details could compromise the mission.

    Jonathan has said repeatedly that a military operation to free the girls would probably result in the deaths of many, all but ruling it out. In the place of military action is bargaining, and Nigerian leaders have sent ambiguous signals about who is negotiating and what’s on the table.

    The challenge of fighting militants who casually sacrifice civilian lives in the name of religion isn’t confined to Nigeria. American forces have struggled inconclusively with extremists in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade.

    The world’s anger can sometimes seem a weak candle next to the flame of intolerance and murder, but in the case of the captive Nigerian schoolgirls, it’s important to keep it burning.

  • Chibok girls and presidential gifts

    SIR: The story of the abducted Chibok girls is an irritant that refuses to fade out of our national discourse. There is no day that the mention of it escapes the front burner of our major national dailies and some notable foreign media outfits. The negativity shooting out from this unsavoury episode of our national life on daily basis should be enough reason why the government should be mercurial and sprightly in ensuring the release of those unfortunate girls. Now that they have spent more than three months in the den of the terrorists, their predicament should move the federal government to consider the option of prisoner-swap as a matter of urgency.

    It is pathetic to hear the alleged N100m gift to the parents of the abducted girls and the 57 escapees when they visited Aso rock at the instance of President Jonathan. Is this the time to give or take gifts? Was the money meant to make the parents forget the agitation and advocacy for the release of their children, or make the parents turn their backs against the #BringBackOurGirls# campaigners who went global to intimate the whole world about the continuing enslavement of the girls and government’s lackadaisical response to their rescue?

    The whole world is watching the unfolding scenario; the government should be fully up in arms against the insurgents and walk their talk. Enough is enough; urgent and proactive steps should be embarked upon to rescue the seized girls.

    To avoid unnecessary shedding of innocent blood as being witnessed between Palestinian Hamas and Israelis army presently, it will be apposite for the president to consider the swap option and stop the parade of inducement already initiated by the millions of naira gifts rained on the Chibok parents.

    President Jonathan should not wait until the abducted girls are murdered or turned to female bombers as agents of hate compulsorily carrying out the instructions of their captors with no option. He should follow the good example of President Barack Obama of America, who swapped five high ranking Taliban prisoners for a single American soldier who was released recently. The plan to borrow another $1billon to combat the insurgency in spite of all the trillions of naira already allocated for defence sounds spurious. We must negotiate instead of wasting more money, lives and properties since the more money we spend, the deadlier the attacks on the innocent civilians from the terrorists.

    • Pastor Mark Debo Taiwo{JP},

    Takie, Ogbomoso

  • FG seeks intervention in Chibok girls’ rescue

    FG seeks intervention in Chibok girls’ rescue

    The Federal Government has thrown its doors open to third party intervention in the efforts to rescue the over 200 Chibok school girls who have been in Boko Haram captivity since April 14.

    A statement issued on by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, urged intermediaries who have offered to persuade the sect to release the girls to come forward.

    The statement quoted President Goodluck Jonathan to have given the indication while speaking in an interview with the Washington Times in the United States.

    The President is presently attending the U.S- African Leaders Summit convened by U.S President Barack Obama.

    Okupe said although government appreciates the support of the international community in the ongoing rescue efforts, it considered the safety of the girls as very paramount, hence the adoption of several methods in the operation.

    The government reiterated its claim that it has information on the location of the kidnapped girls but was being mindful of the consequences of invading the location to avoid a repeat of what happened in February 2013 when an offshoot of Boko Haram killed seven foreign hostages in northern Nigeria before authorities could rescue them.

    “If it is to risk a few dead bodies, it is easier. You can blast the place and carry the corpses. But is that what we have to do? So it is delicate”

    “They (terrorists) are ready to die. So when you are dealing with that scenario, it is very different from the ordinary kidnapping by criminals or people who don’t want to die. So it is very, very delicate.

    “This is why the dialogue option is not being ruled out. We have set up a committee; what I call a dialogue committee on the security challenge we have in the north, even before the kidnapping of the Chibok girls.

    “We have a team. And we encourage people to assist them. We do negotiate.  Quite a number of people have come with different information. We encourage them. But none of them has yielded any results yet,” the statement quoted the President as saying in U.S.

     

  • Okogie faults search for Chibok girls

    Okogie faults search for Chibok girls

    The Federal Government’s search for the Chibok girls is “more of a talk show”.

    “It is over 100 days now that our over 200 children, God’s special gifts to humanity have been abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents,” Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos Anthony Cardinal Okogie said in a statement yesterday.

    “Unfortunately, the search for these schoolchildren in captivity is more of a talk show and trading of blames than real action,” he said.

    On April 14, Boko Haram militants abducted 276 schoolgirls in Borno State’s town of Chibok, according to official accounts.

    Boko Haram kingpin Abubakar Shekau later claimed responsibility for the abductions, offering to trade the kidnapped girls in return for some of his fighters held by Nigerian authorities.

    Cardinal Okogie, one of Nigeria’s most respected priests, faulted a decision by the Nigerian president to allow foreign military strategists and troops into the country.

    “The father of this state opened Nigeria to the comity of nations on the pretext of helping to rescue the children from captivity. With this decision, is our country still well-secured?” he queried.

    The archbishop’s position is in harmony with many Nigerian intellectuals who had warned that allowing western military troops to set feet in the country poses security risks.

    Cardinal Okogie also expressed doubts on the president’s request for $1 billion foreign loan to fight the insurgency in the northeast.

    “Some people are even insinuating that the president’s request could be in preparation for the 2015 elections,” he said.

    “On our part too, we are asking for the concrete explanation and the rationale for this loan at this critical period,” added the revered priest.

    “Our military personnel need to be well mobilized before emphasizing on the hardware. No hungry and angry military can fight any war,” Cardinal Okogie said.

    The Nigerian parliament has gone on recess, and no indication the lawmakers would call off their holiday, ending in September, to consider the president’s request.

    Northeastern Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states have been under emergency rule since May of last year.

    Tens of thousands have died since Boko Haram launched its violent campaign in 2009 following the extrajudicial murder of its leader Mohammed Yusuf in police custody.

    The group has also been blamed the destruction of public infrastructure, private businesses and displacement of at least six million Nigerians.

  • Chibok girls’ captivity is like Ebola, say protesters

    Chibok girls’ captivity is like Ebola, say protesters

    •Mark’s wife at 63 seeks Chibok girls’ rescue

    Members of the #BringBackOurGirls movement have said the continued captivity of the over 200 abducted Chibok schoolgirls is akin to delaying the Ebola virus.

    They noted that if nothing is done fast, the negative effect of the abduction would affect many innocent people.

    The protesters said the new trend among Boko Haram insurgents of using girls as suicide bombers is dangerous for the affected communities and other parts of Nigeria.

    The movement said the girls were being indoctrinated to negatively accept as normal the evil manipulation of their captors.

    They said the girls may have been so brain washed that if the insurgents ask them to commit suicide, they might do so without hesitating.

    One of the leaders of the movement, Bukky Shonibare, spoke in Abuja at the 96th daily sitting of the group.

    He said: “Each day is terrible for those girls. If you look at the recent state of female suicide bombers, it is dangerous, not just to the communities involved but also to the whole nation. It’s like another Ebola. If nothing is done, it will spread round.

    “The girls have been there for 111 days today. They are being indoctrinated. Their values are being changed. Something is being done to them.

    “They are being affected by the Stockholm syndrome, where they begin to feel loyal to their abductors and may no longer remember the negative things done to them. They may feel a psychological kind of safety.

    “So, when the abductors tell them to carry bombs or something, they will. These are girls between the ages of 16 and 19. Their values not yet shaped. The government needs to do something to make sure the girls come back soon. It has to be our priority.”

    Also, Mrs Helen Mark, wife of Senate President David Mark, has urged insurgents and terrorists to stop their activities.

    Mrs. Mark spoke yesterday in Abuja at a church service to mark her 63rd birthday.

    Mrs Mark, according to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Senate President, Paul Mumeh, said violent crimes and terrorism not only pose serious challenges but impede the peace, unity and development of the nation.

    She said: “The mood of the nation does not call for celebration. I wish that we live in peace in Nigeria. I am not celebrating the birthday because of the situation we now find ourselves. It is sad.

    “The security situation is embarrassing. I wish that by next year, I will celebrate my birthday in a very joyous mood and in an atmosphere of peace and unity. Not in this kind of sober mood.

    “I sincerely join our compatriots and all well-meaning citizens of the world to plead with the terrorists to sheathe their swords and let us come together. Let them state in clear terms what their grievances are, and the government would address them.”

  • Decoding Chibok monetisation narratives

    Decoding Chibok monetisation narratives

    Nigerian politicians and their aides use president and presidency as synonyms when it suits them and as antonyms when they prefer

    The Premium Times first broke the news of 100 million naira gift to the mothers of kidnapped Chibok girls. In the first story on this initiative on the part of the presidency, a representative of one arm of government – the legislature – confirmed that he was at the meeting of selected Chibok mothers at which envelopes (probably brown ones in a country where brown is the colour code for corruption) were distributed to participants at the important meeting that came months after it should have, had the president not been otherwise too busy fighting other aspects of the Boko Haram menace. But the presidency has been quick to deny that any envelopes were distributed at the end of the meeting and that no money (let alone 100 million naira) was given to anybody. The two men behind branding and re-branding of the president: Doyin Okupe and Reuben Abati quickly came to throw light on the story before the president’s political enemies blow it out of proportion. Doyin Okupe characterised the story about the president giving money to Chibok delegates “as absolute falsehood that is unknown to the president.”

    One has to be a critical reader to make sense of anything said by or about politicians in our country, especially in relation to money. It is not just a Jonathan presidency’s problem; it has been with us for some time. When some money was found in Barkin Zuwo’s official residence at the end of the second republic, nobody in the country knew exactly how much was found in the politician’s house until Barkin Zuwo himself cried out to tell the nation that the money in his house was much more than what was reported, adding courageously that nothing was illegal about finding government’s money in government’s house.

    Much later in the country’s political life, General Sani Abacha called traditional rulers to have a meeting with him when he was preparing to transform from a military dictator to a civilian ruler. Abacha and his advisers felt that he needed to meet with traditional rulers to persuade traditional rulers to talk to their subjects (in a supposed republic) about the need to accept Abacha’s metamorphosis. At the end of the meeting, there was a news report to the effect that envelopes exchanged hands with handshakes. Many people at the meeting and those who were not in any way near the venue of the meeting denied that anything of the sort happened. It took the Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom then, the late Itiade Adekolurejo, to announce to the media that he was given a big brown envelope containing naira notes and that he was not the only person to receive such gift at the end of the meeting.

    Now that we are in an ethos of monetisation, it is not clear why anybody would deny that his principal gave money to less privileged citizens. After all, monetisation, a concept popularised during the presidency of Obasanjo, had acquired multiple meanings since its outing by the Obasanjo presidency. In its formal sense, it means giving money to cover job-related benefits that the government or any employer is contractually under obligation to give to employees. In its popular usage, Nigerians have come to see monetisation as a literal word to serve as synonym for its metaphoric version: stomach infrastructure. Chibok mothers who have complained about not getting enough or anything out of the largesse supposedly distributed by the presidency have no reason to feel ashamed for crying out loud about being cheated. Such mothers, despite their remoteness from Abuja, must have heard of the folklore of ‘money losing weight’ from one government agency to another. The folklore in the past was that even statutory allocations lost weight between Abuja and state capitals.

    What is surprising about the country’s latest monetisation narrative is that the presidency appears afraid of being linked to monetisation in this instance. Abati’s variant of the story is that the president would not offer anybody bribe. His status forbids that? The presidential media aide also added that there was no time for anybody to distribute envelopes at the end of the meeting and that no envelopes were distributed during the meeting while the president was in attendance. Those who admire the president are likely to accept the presidency’s statement hook, line, and sinker. But those who do not are likely to wonder how long it would have taken to pass out envelopes to participants at meetings. But whether Chibok mothers and girls were gifted money at the meeting should not be a matter to encourage anyone to cast aspersion on the president’s character. It is safer for the peace and unity of our country to assume that our president would not do a thing like that. If he had wanted to do such a thing, he would not have waited for 100 days or the coming of young Malala to do that.

    It is the presidency that needs to throw more light on this issue. Citizens are already confused about too many things. Some of the women at the meeting have affirmed that they received money ranging from 200,000 to 7,000 naira while others complained of being left out of the Santa Claus rounds. Worse still, a member of the federal House of Representatives, Pobu Bitrus, also a member of the Chibok legislative constituency, confirmed to the media that Chibok mothers received envelopes: “After we met with the presidency,(not necessarily with the president, my emphasis) the parents were given some money in envelopes. That’s all. All other things they are saying about N100 million, I don’t know about that.” Nigerian politicians and their aides use president and presidency as synonyms when it suits them and as antonyms when they prefer. Reporters need to probe the legislator further to confirm which one: the person or the institution, if this story is to be decodable.

    The lawmaker was clear about parents receiving envelopes containing money at the end of the meeting. What he was not sure of is how much was involved. How important is the information about the exact amount given to Chibok mothers? In most countries, the issue would not be about how much was given to assist women whose daughters have been in captivity for over 100 days. The point that calls for public scrutiny or discussion is why any envelope was given to parents whose daughters the whole world is trying to help liberate from the claws of terrorists, whilst those whose children had been killed by Boko Haram terrorists have not been compensated in any noticeable way.

    Had the presidency decided that the Chibok mothers needed some financial assistance to help tide them over this period of pain and inordinate waiting for their daughters, there would have been nothing illegal about such decision. All that would have been required in other climes would be for the government to take a decision and raise vouchers to cover such expenditures. After that, the envelopes would have been given out in front of the camera. This would have earned the presidency and even the president (regardless of whether he took part in taking such decision) some political mileage among citizens. Individuals who are sensitive to the needs of the parents of the abducted girls must have been assisting the parents in cash or in kind since the innocent girls were abducted. There should be nothing wrong with reinforcing the generosity of individuals with that of the government. All humane governments across the world have ways of assisting citizens in distress, especially when such citizens have no contribution—direct or indirect—to their predicament. Is the presidency afraid of being seen as generous and soft, even when the occasion demands softness, especially after showing hard and raw power in Ekiti last month?

    But if the lawmaker who told the nation in a straightforward language that Chibok mothers, who are members of his constituency, were given envelopes by government officials turns out to have created a fictive tale, then there is need for a probe to determine any trace of malice in Honourable Bitrus’ eye-witness assessment of what happened at the end of the meeting between the president and Chibok mothers. Allowing two representatives of the federal government, one from the executive branch and the other from the legislative wing to get away with saying two diametrically opposed things about the same event of significance to the public is dangerous to nurturing a culture of transparency. Certainly, the two sides cannot be right if they choose to hold on to their views of what Chibok mothers received from their hosts a few weeks ago.

  • Children pray for release of Chibok girls

    Over 100 kids under the auspices of African Children of Peace Club (ACPC) drawn from across Lagos State last weekend interceded for the release of the over 200 abducted Chibok girls.

    The prayer marked with the mid-year children‘s intercessory prayer and valedictory service by ACPC, an arm of African Foundation for Peace and Love Initiatives in Egbeda, Lagos

    The session with the theme for the sake of our children we pray featured drama, song rendition and bible recitation, among others.

    One of the children at the intercession, Otimayin Naomi, said the Chibok girls’ abduction has “become a source of concern for us and we believe God that with our prayers, they will be released.”

    She explained: “We are children and we feel the pains, agony and trauma of our friends who have been held captive by the Boko Haram group.

    “We are praying that God will touch their heart and our friends will be released soon.”

    The founding president of APLI, Rev Titus Oyeyemi, said: “Our work is to intercede. Intercession will make the Almighty God, who has the power to release the Chibok girls, to arise.

    “We will ask God not to forget the sighing of these imprisoned girls.”