Jonathan’s meeting with Chibok parents

In the aftermath of the abduction in April, concerned Nigerians, who had noticed reluctance on the president’s part to pay a personal visit to Chibok, urged him to do so as a matter of urgency as a way to empathise with parents and assure them of his government’s resolve to bring the girls back safely. […]

In the aftermath of the abduction in April, concerned Nigerians, who had noticed reluctance on the president’s part to pay a personal visit to Chibok, urged him to do so as a matter of urgency as a way to empathise with parents and assure them of his government’s resolve to bring the girls back safely. But the president demurred. Indeed at the height of the entreaties, he preferred to go abroad to honour some engagement rather than visit Chibok, apparently oblivious of the unedifying import of his action. This created the impression that either the president thought the whole matter was a hoax or he could not fathom the enormity of the situation at hand – that a whole generation of girls in a community had been seized by malcontents to demonstrate the dark and terrible extent they were willing to go in their war against society.
Having said this, however, now that the president has met with the Chibok parents and elders, albeit not in Chibok but in Abuja, he has begun to demonstrate the appropriate sensitivity expected in the abduction saga, especially that as a parent he also feels their pain and anxiety caused by the forcible removal of children from their school and kept against their will.
It is understandable that Goodluck Jonathan used the opportunity to refute the notion that his government was doing nothing to rescue the girls as was the general perception. On this score, he has himself to blame for the initial untidy manner the issue was handled. Nigerians would, however, be gladdened by the repeated assurances he gave the parents during the meeting that soon everyone would have cause to celebrate because work was in top gear to secure the release of all the girls and that he needs them to continue to show “patience, understanding and cooperation”. Having borne their private anxieties with equanimity for the past three months, not a few of the Chibok parents would chuckle about such request for forbearance. Yet due to the seeming intractable quest for the release of the girls, calling on the parents to continue to display understanding is not any less appropriate.

On the delay in the rescue mission, the president argued that much as government was taking steps to recover the girls, especial care was imperative to get them out “alive and as safe as possible”. This is a hint that the protracted nature of the rescue was because of the need to avoid unnecessary casualty, a point made perhaps with the aim of absolving the military that had been criticised for not executing the rescue assignment with dispatch.  President Jonathan may also be saying that Nigerians should not expect an operation whose outcome could wipe out the insurgents but fail to bring out the girls alive. To be sure, that is a fair and humane consideration – after all, what is the point in barging into where the girls are being held with guns blazing and coming out empty handed. Still, while haste must be made slowly, too much delay itself could prove costly, particularly in human terms.
The president told the parents that in recognition of the parlous state of the North-east region a number of socio-economic initiatives, such as the Victims Support Fund (VSF), Safe Schools Initiatives (SSI) etc., have been lined up to commence as soon as the rescue is done and Boko Haram is defeated. Judging by the difficulties facing the campaign, this might take eternity. The implementation of the programmes should begin immediately, side by side with the campaign against the insurgency. If they are executed with the due transparency and commitment, hopefully their benefits to society could persuade the impressionable youth that waging war against society is destructive.
Whatever the case, one way or the other, Nigerians would hold President Jonathan on his promise to the Chibok parents that their children and wards would soon be freed.