proud to be a Chibokian

Our shared humanity ought to make a Chibokian of every man and woman of conscience. Boko Haram had been killing thousands of Nigerians for several years, slaughtering many in their sleep. The sect’s bestiality increased with each successful campaign of mass slaughter. It was only a matter of time before they did something that would […]

Our shared humanity ought to make a Chibokian of every man and woman of conscience. Boko Haram had been killing thousands of Nigerians for several years, slaughtering many in their sleep. The sect’s bestiality increased with each successful campaign of mass slaughter. It was only a matter of time before they did something that would truly astound the world. That line was crossed on the day they abducted the Chibok girls.
As at last week, the #BringBackOurGirls campaign has recorded 2,170,000,000 (approximately 2.2 billion) hits on Google and 1.5 billion tweets and re-tweets worldwide.
The international community is in the process of giving us technical and military assistance so that we can reunite the victims with their families. Some countries have expressed concern over the ineptitude demonstrated by our government in handling the matter. What one expects the government to do is sit up and face the challenges squarely instead of spinning yarn and trading blames. President Jonathan must provide leadership. Thirty-five days after the Chibok abductions, the president is yet to visit the scene of the crime to reassure and condole with the people. I humbly disagree with his contention that he doesn’t necessarily have to physically visit the place; he has to come to terms with the power of symbolisms in situations of social strife. (Imagine a Jonathan in army camouflage or rolled up sleeves inspecting the streets of Chibok and holding hands with victims’ families and local officials.)
Security concerns about the safety of the president? Who is selling that fib? Didn’t GW Bush visit ground-zero after the 9/11 terrorist attack? Didn’t Obama go to Boston in the wake of the terrorist attack at the Boston marathon? Didn’t Uhuru Kenyatta show leadership when he visited the shopping mall bombed by Al Shabab terrorists in Nairobi and followed up with a world press conference in which he told the terrorists that the world would hunt them down? What is so peculiar about our circumstances?
Those who invent conspiracy theories and play one part of the country against the other are the real enemies of the nation in these trying times. How are the parents of the abducted girls supposed to feel when some insensitive government officials and their appendages give the impression that the girls are not really missing?
When Governor Shettima of Borno State disclosed that our soldiers at the war front were poorly motivated and ill-equipped, an avalanche of verbal attacks was directed at him. Last week, when soldiers deployed to the war zone rebelled against their General Officer Commanding (GOC) the uncomfortable truth was revealed. In my opinion, the way to help President Jonathan is to call his attention to things he should be doing at this critical time. Without doubt, his job is a difficult one but we won’t be helping him by making only politically correct noises. At the risk of being labelled as anti-government, we must do our patriotic duty and say that our soldiers need to be better equipped and better trained.
Because of the way we have been handling this matter, US Senator McCain, the failed Republican presidential candidate, had the temerity to say,  “If they knew where they (the girls) were, I certainly would send in US troops to rescue them, in a New York minute I would, without permission of the host country. I wouldn’t be waiting for some kind of permission from some guy named Goodluck Jonathan …”
I think McCain should disinfect his mouth with turpentine. The arthritic senator is known for blabbing before thinking — as was amply demonstrated during his country’s presidential elections. With his kind of disastrous record as a fighter pilot, I wouldn’t buy a fairly used tactic from him. Does he even know where Nigeria is on the map? I prefer President Obama’s cool, unruffled, respectable offer of assistance. That is how it ought to be.
At this very moment there are reports of massive recruitment of new members by Boko Haram in northern Cameroonian towns of Banki, Kolofata and Ngeshawa. In Mayo-Sava area and Mora District it has been alleged that some of their boys were captured by Boko Haram, indoctrinated and sent to camps for military training before being unleashed on Nigeria. If one had any doubt about the newfound strength of the terrorists, SaharaReporters recently revealed that on February 13, 2014,  Boko Haram captured numerous army vehicles when it laid siege on the Nigerian army base in Izge, Borno State. The report disclosed that one of the trucks captured by the insurgents contained 200 rocket bombs!
Blind nationalism should not have any place in our fight against terror. We need help — outside help.  The poorly trained and ill-motivated soldiers we’ve been deploying in harm’s way are also human beings with families and loved ones. The responsible thing to do is to acknowledge our deficiencies and get the required international help to secure the release or rescue of the Chibok girls and then rout the terrorists.
There is a scintilla of hope in the coalescing sub-regional collaboration which this writer has advocated all along. And in this connection, I give full marks to President Jonathan for attending the Paris security meeting involving Nigeria and French-speaking border nations of Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. President Idriss Deby of Chad confirmed that “there is determination to tackle this situation head on … to launch a war, a total war on Boko Haram.” The four countries are collaborating with Nigeria to establish an intelligence-pooling unit, create a dedicated team to identify means of implementation and draw up, during a second phase, a regional counter-terrorism strategy with the cooperation of the US, UK, France and the European Union.
That is the spirit. We must all support our government to win this war. If Idriss Deby, Paul Biya, Boni Yayi and Mahamadou Issoufou have signed on as they publicly did in Paris, then there will soon be no hiding place for Abubakar Shekau and his fellow terrorists. As a Chibokian, I can’t wait for that day to come.