I have been complaining that this government has no strategic security plan. I have said it before the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan ended that there must be a total overhaul of the security apparatus. He thought the whole thing was a joke. He wanted to do that of the military and I told him I wanted a total security reform. I told him one-on-on e. I wanted Jonathan to do the reform because of this Boko Haram issue. I wanted him to lay a foundation for Buhari for him to build on. But what he did was to appoint a committee and put inappropriate people in that committee to do a report. I am not sure anything has happened to that report till today. I have not read the report, but I know that many people in that committee do not have the expertise and knowledge to be on that committee. What we need now is a total security umbrella” – Major -Gen. Ishola Williams.
Not for anything in the world should the Buhari government have allowed thunder to strike a second time with the seizure of those young, innocent Dapchi girls. Having said that, let me quickly add that for Information Minister Lai Mohammed to be believed when he says government did not pay any ransom to have those kids returned to the comfort of their homes, he must first tell us how the government he serves converted those dangerous criminals, Boko Haram, that is, to disciples of Mother Theresa. These are hungry urchins who extreme security lapses, and unimaginable carelessness in high places, gifted hundreds of young innocent girls and these characters, who kidnap and rob banks to ensure they could feed, would now just simply return such to the waiting hands of an infernal enemy government without any quid pro quo?
Lai should tell that to the marines.
That said, it has been nothing short of agonising seeing how many have gone on an unnecessary fishing expedition, claiming that the seizure, as well as the release of the girls, were nothing but a big scam, a hoax. One would have laughed these innuendos off if amongst its purveyors were not very educated Nigerians you thought could never be found purveying such illogic.
And for Christ’s sake, what are their reasons? The girls came with bags as if it was inconceivable that after being paid billions in ransom (Governments never confess to this) these miscreants couldn’t buy them bags to put their old stuffs in. Another reason they gave is the manner of their return with Boko Haram elements driving into Dapchi in a convoy and without them being attacked. And, I ask, in a situation like the Buhari government was in, with flagellations tumbling in , not just from local political opposition and a thoroughly traumatised citizenry, but more poignantly, from the UK, US and the United Nations, what leverage does the government have not to accept any conditionalities from Boko Haram? And why would they dare jeopardise the lives of the freshly released girls who were just exiting the mother of all ordeals? What point would an attack on them make?
It would have been tolerable if these accusations were limited to the social media where just about anything goes but no, even some serious intellectual roundtables have not escaped the odium of being used to propagate such outright nonsense.
I must admit, however, that there was the rather stupid chest beating by the ever awkward minister of defence who told Nigerians, definitively, that the girls would be back within two weeks as did happen. But if you ask me, I’d merely say this is a minister who is very given to loose talking, if you remember how he misspoke on the murderous Fulani herdsmen’s needless killings in Benue State.
But I personally don’t think there was anything to it other than cheer bravado, based on the negotiations he knew were ongoing. Or why would President Buhari allow small kids be put through such horror? To make what point; that he rescued Dapchi girls whilst over a hundred of Chibok girls, stolen four years earlier are still out there in the cold? I have heard people say the government wanted this as a positive distraction but hey, to what purpose? Would that have solved the horrendous herdsman’s problem? Or the gripping hunger ravaging the country or would that have meant a successful restructuring of Nigeria? These, for me, are the demons tearing at the very heart of the Buhari government and I can’t see how scamming the seizure, and release, of these poor girls could have answered any of them.
The PDP, together with its army of forever wailing mob, must give us another story.
I digress.
I had to respond to one such post on Ekiti Panupo where the following quote is archetypical of the lies being so propagated. A Diasporan, highly educated member wrote: “Good news on the release of these innocent girls. It’s obvious someone or group of people masterminded their abduction and release. Five of the girls have been reported dead and the rest must have been thoroughly abused. What a ground conspiracy against the soul, spirit, and body of these innocent kids!”
The high flying language notwithstanding, there’s nothing to this but pure ossification by individuals who will never see anything good in the Buhari government. And we need not seek far to blow this to smithereens than to hear the very young girl who spoke on television on behalf of her mates when she said that their abductors NEVER abused them in any way. She actually said they were well treated. The girl was so young and so sure of what she was saying you could readily see she wasn’t coached. I couldn’t help responding to these accusations by persons I think would have preferred to see the Dapchi girls lost to Boko Haram forever so Buhari could look everything they say he is.
I wrote as follows: “In answer to a Face book question as to what I think happened in the Dapchi case:
“What happened?
Absolutely simple and straightforward.
Remember President Buhari made a distinction between the two governments’ responses to the two events, one showing utter unbelief and disdain, lasting all of 18 days, while the other moved rapidly, displaying absolute remorse, and complete embarrassment. Unlike President Jonathan, it didn’t take Buhari 18 days to react, and given the enormity of the sense of shame he felt, especially with both the UN & the US thoroughly lampooning both him and his government, he must have decided that if it means paying the last penny in the government treasury to recover these young girls, he just must do it. (No government ever says it paid ransom even when some South South governors were allegedly profiting from such payments in the early days of kidnapping foreigners).
This must be the point at which government must have combined military intelligence with native intelligence. You must have heard about somebody like Madam Boko Haram. Indeed, Lai Mohammed, has now let it be known that there was an ongoing negotiation which predated the incident and involved some foreign countries. Even if this was what the minister of defence relied on, he still spoke rather loosely. The rest, as they say, is history.
Please compare this with those who deceived President Jonathan, taking from the treasury, millions of dollars claiming they were negotiating with Boko Haram. An Australian priest involved in the discussions was the whistleblower here so this is no guess work. The situation then was that while one government was serious about rescuing the girls, another saw the Chibok girls as a bargaining chip to make money, in billions.
Want any evidence of this:
President Jonathan’s Chief of Army Staff, who was deeply involved in the negotiations was recently alleged to have returned , as first instalment only, a whooping N1.7b loot.
What more evidence do we need to clarify the attitude of the two governments to Boko Haram’s unfortunate adoption of these young school girls?
Unfortunately, as I go through the quantum of the volume of persons from the same part of the country eagerly spreading this falsity, I had to ask a professor who posted a story on the issue to please do a content analysis of the reactions based on ethnicity. Although I pleaded with him to kindly revert with his findings, I have not yet seen his reply on the Face book. It has become painfully sad, that irrespective of age, education and exposure, matters are now treated in Nigeria, not on the basis of truth, or rigorous analysis, but by a disreputable retreat to ethnic redoubts from where many love to spread the most obscene, and totally reprehensible, horror tales just so they can score some cheap political points. It saddens that this is the hole Nigeria was dragooned into by PDP’s 16 years’ stranglehold of profligacy and unprecedented corruption over our country.
Finally, a word about the Nigerian branch of Amnesty International which, unlike its parent body, has become thoroughly disreputable and unreliable. None of its stigmatisations of the Nigerian army is ever reported to the latter who read about them in newspapers like any other Nigerian. Amnesty International, Nigeria, has become extremely, negatively hyperactive about Nigerian affairs since the duo who brought it to Nigeria, and first ran its affairs, displayed their ‘red card’.
Nigerians are not fooled.