No, you need to visit Chibok, Mr President

Speaking at a news conference in Paris at the conclusion of a regional security meeting on Nigeria, President Jonathan was quoted saying: “These girls are not held in Chibok. If the president goes to Chibok today, it does not solve any problem. The problem facing the president and indeed the Nigerian government is how to […]

Speaking at a news conference in Paris at the conclusion of a regional security meeting on Nigeria, President Jonathan was quoted saying: “These girls are not held in Chibok. If the president goes to Chibok today, it does not solve any problem. The problem facing the president and indeed the Nigerian government is how to get these girls from wherever they are.”
Answering another question, the president described allegations of misappropriation of security funds levelled against the military as exaggerated, while admitting that administrative lapses might have contributed to the escalation of Boko Haram’s war against Nigeria. Who is responsible for these undeclared administrative lapses? What has been done so far to eliminate the lapses? Have we seen the end of these lapses?
As usual, presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, denied that the Presidency had announced a visit to Chibok. This is despite reports that the president’s advance team had been sighted in Maiduguri, Bornu State, on Thursday, 15th May, 2014.
Nevertheless, there are many reasons why the President needs to go to Chibok. First of all, some parents of the missing girls are in Chibok and more were said to have gathered there to receive him, once it was announced that he was going to visit the place. The Chibok parents have already formed a group and their spokesman has been in the news for quite a while now. The President would have taken the opportunity of the visit to sympathise with and reassure them that he is doing everything humanly possible to #Bring Back Our Girls. In the alternative, the President can meet with the parents of the missing girls at a place of his choice. For after that misadventure by his wife, the President surely needs to reconnect with the parents and all Nigerians to strengthen morale.
The President would have used the Chibok visit to authoritatively disclose the terms under which foreigners are assisting Nigeria to locate and rescue the girls in the light of the agitation by many that our country is about to be re-colonised. It is a sign of the times that Nigerian troops which fought in Burma, in Lebanon, in the Congo and lately in the jungles of Liberia and Sierra Leone are today being overrun by insurgents in their fatherland. What has the Nigerian Army been turned into?  Lt Gen Alani Akinrinade (rtd) has this to say about the Nigerian Army: “I cannot really think of why security forces have difficulty in locating the site called Sambisa forest, however large it may be. I do not believe it is impossible for security forces to run over the place and find out what exactly is going on or happening there. I can’t believe that.”
The President has additional reason to go to Chibok: he has sent Nigerian troops there to execute their most important internal mission since the civil war; rescue our innocent school girls stolen by Boko Haram. Therefore, the President needs to touch base with the soldiers, see for himself how they are executing the mission and try to inspire them. Is he not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Being on the field with one’s troops in trying times is what should earn one the title, commander-in-chief, not just when one is reviewing a guard of honour or an independence parade in peace time. In my opinion, a presidential visit to Chibok takes precedence over an appearance, a handshake and a smile alongside others in front of the battery of cameras on the steps of the Elysee Palace.
It is not enough for the President to say that because the girls are not in Chibok, he needs not to go there; will the president go to the place the girls are being kept when it is finally found? The President needs to go to Chibok to see for himself where these roses once lived. He needs to see the destroyed school and take a general look around another Nigerian town blighted by Boko Haram atrocities. After all, people, Nigerians are still living there and they need presidential solidarity and encouragement.
The whole world, long before now, had expected the President to undertake a visit to Chibok. If he does this, he will find another specie of human beings called Journalists – local and international – ready to ask him his own impressions of the Boko Haram saga, its unprecedented kidnap of that large number of young women and how Nigeria really intends to have them back. There is nothing that stops the President from actually holding a full blown news conference in Chibok, complete with a #Bring Back Our Girls background, to address the global fears over the missing girls and assuage the anger of their parents and the generality of our compatriots. The sight of the President holding a news conference on the spot the Chibok girls went missing on 15th April, 2014, will be an act of bravery; it will mitigate the feeling that the president is only concerned political self-preservation at a time when the entire country looks up to him for leadership. The governor of Bornu State, Kashim Shettima, said he was ready to lay down his life for his citizens; what sacrifice is the president willing to make? Someone said the president would have visited if the Bornu State Governor had decamped from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). No, the president needs to visit the people of Chibok quickly and by any means necessary.