Jonathan, Chibok girls and pressure

Just mention that and everyone knows who you are talking about and what led to their becoming such heroic victims and their abductors such a notorious group. As a mark of the world’s outrage over that heinous act, a world-wide campaign for their release was birthed. As we speak, there are some women occupying the […]

Just mention that and everyone knows who you are talking about and what led to their becoming such heroic victims and their abductors such a notorious group. As a mark of the world’s outrage over that heinous act, a world-wide campaign for their release was birthed. As we speak, there are some women occupying the Unity Fountain in Maitama, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, picketing, all in efforts to pile pressure on government to ‘bring back our girls’.
If a most vociferous campaign can lead to the attainment of any set goal, the Chibok girls would have by now been unconditionally freed by their abductors or efforts on the part of the government of Nigeria and the foreign experts it sought help from would have yielded the desired dividend. Sadly, the girls are still in captivity. That is why I think that as we mark with sadness the continued captivity of these girls 100 days after, the time has come for the campaigners to pause for a rethink of their strategy or else their pursuit will become meaningless or ineffectual. The fact that #BringBackOurGirls campaign has not achieved any tangible result all these hundred days means that there is need for a change of tactics. If you have carried out one strategy for the attainment of one defined goal for 100 days and it has not yielded any result, it means it will be madness to continue with that approach.
Ever since the campaign to free the girls started and have not ceased for one day, I have seen the irrationality or un-wisdom in it and have often asked some this question: “Tell me, if you were in Jonathan’s shoes what exactly would you have done, given the circumstances?” The answer I have always received is: “I would have done something. Presidents are elected to do something.” When I insist that they tell me in very specific terms what it is they will do, they just ramble and mumble and abuse Jonathan for not doing something and stop at that.
While in a democracy it is reasonable and legal to put pressure on elected officials so that they can be on their toes to solve our existential problems, doing so unreasonably may be counter-productive. The girls are far away in Sambisa Forest and some people are thousands of kilometres away in Abuja, Hong Kong, New York and wherever else in the world daily making noise, calling on a man who is not obliged for security reasons to divulge his plans and the actions he is taking, to do something. It does not appear reasonable to me.
What any rational, unemotional and possibly non-partisan observer can see is that what we have on our hands is a most delicate situation that does not admit of easy solution, but one which calls for understanding and the giving of the benefit of the doubts to those in authority charged with the responsibility of doing something rational and effective to get the girls out. The truth is the terrorists have held us by the balls. We must be cautious, reasonable and avoid taking precipitate steps to please the agitators and become such great and foolish losers and the laughing stock of the world.
In large part, the campaign looks like an attempt to incite the parents of the girls against government and to portray the government in very poor light as incompetent, unconcerned and clueless, which is not a reflection of what is going on.
The authorities have volunteered the information that the girls have been located and that thank God, they are still within the borders of Nigeria. In the war to release them, this is not a small or insignificant achievement. What this means is that what remains now is how to fashion out a strategy to storm the place and rescue them unharmed. But what the continued campaign and all the talk about the girls achieves is that it puts their abductors in a permanent ‘aware, conscious and alert’ mode when what the security forces need to succeed in their effort is for them to be in an unconscious, blissfully ignorant mode.
That is why some of us think that if the leaders of #BringBackOurGirls campaign do not re-strategise, the whole effort may actually be counter-productive. It gets in the way of efforts to actually rescue the girls. Zeal without wisdom can be such a terribly destructive thing. Instead of squarely facing the task at hand, the government is being daily irritated and distracted by the emotional outbursts coming from the Unity Fountain and other places.
Nigerians and others, some of whom claim that they are interested in the Chibok girls’ case out of humanitarian concern, must not forget that the Nigerian government is not facing a conventional war but a guerrilla one in which attempts to wipe away the enemy may end up wiping away the innocent population along with him. I think that no matter how ill-equipped the Nigerian army may be, if it was a straight forward conventional war, Boko Haram would have been wiped away long ago.
My plea is that we should give Jonathan a break and trust and pray that the Holy Spirit will give him the required wisdom to pull the chestnut out of the flaming fire. The pressure on him and his government is undue and unfair. Continuing to mount it is capable of leading him to take hasty and inappropriate actions that will worsen rather than solve the knotty case. Pointing accusing fingers here and there will not solve the problem. If blames would bring back the girls, they should have been back 100 days ago. The fact that they are still in captivity means that the solution does not lie in that direction.