Their girls

All others who have subsequently escaped tell horror stories. Fortunately the plight of the girls has been kept in the spotlight through the valiant efforts of former Minister for Education Oby Ezekwesili and the #Bring Back our Girls campaign. Unfortunately Madam Ezekwesili and her co-travellers have missed the point. In adopting the hashtag “BringBackOurGirls” they […]

All others who have subsequently escaped tell horror stories. Fortunately the plight of the girls has been kept in the spotlight through the valiant efforts of former Minister for Education Oby Ezekwesili and the #Bring Back our Girls campaign. Unfortunately Madam Ezekwesili and her co-travellers have missed the point. In adopting the hashtag “BringBackOurGirls” they hoped to evoke sympathetic action from government. But this has failed because arguments of emotional appeal assume that emotions exist in the first place. Time and again ranging from disaster management; to fuel subsidy removal; non-payment of pensions; pardoning the guilty and condoning corruption, this administration has illustrated its unemotional callousness towards the plight of ordinary citizens. There is nothing unusual about their lack of concern for the girls. Those in authority don’t think of them as “our girls”. Their children are safely enrolled in elite private schools; or attending the best overseas universities; or spending extravagantly on lavish well publicised weddings. As far as they are concerned the kidnapped girls are not “our” girls, they are “their” girls.
It’s their girls who are being raped and killed daily, their girls who are being married off, and their girls whose lives have been irreversibly damaged. Most commentators blame our leadership for the tragedy. The Economist Magazine labelled President Jonathan incompetent, claiming that he and the military can no longer be trusted to guarantee the security of Nigerians. The Director of Atlantic Council’s African Centre Peter Pham said government’s failure to even know the true number of missing girls re-enforces a perception of systemic incompetence. Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell confirmed everyone’s worst fears when he declared that Boko Haram’s strength is increasing while the government’s ability to provide security is decreasing. Instead of acting decisively to end the crisis, Government condemnably squandered the sum of $1.2 million engaging the services of a US public relation firm to whitewash their image. Government’s image definitely needs whitewashing. The attempt to ban the #Bring Back Our Girls campaigners from Abuja was unconstitutional, illegal and extremely poor judgement, while the adoption of #Bring Back Jonathan by the president’s supporters was in extremely poor taste. On October 17th hopes were raised that the girls may be released after a ceasefire was announced. But this turned out to be a pathetic hoax. Surprisingly the Chief of Defence Staff claimed to have located the girls but ruled out the use of force in securing their release despite all the international assistance. The United Kingdom agreed to send experts to advise, and a Royal Air Force (RAF) Sentinel R1 reconnaissance aircraft was deployed to Ghana to assist. The US agreed to send experts in intelligence investigations, hostage negotiation; information-sharing and victim assistance. France offered a specialist team and held a summit in Paris with Nigerian and her neighbours.  China offered to make available any useful information acquired by its satellite and intelligence services. Canada acknowledged it had joined the effort to free the girls but kept the details of its involvement secret. Iran offered to help resolve the issue through negotiations.  Israel sent a team of intelligence experts to assist, while the European Union passed a resolution that the girls should be released immediately.
The general public and the international community have done everything expected of them.  The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the abduction. The First Lady of America Michelle Obama held up a #Bring back our Girls sign. In Epping Forest in England an art piece depicting the missing girls was created. Both the United Nations Security Council and UNICEF condemned the abductions while concerned peoples all over the world, took to the social media to express outrage. In many major western cities such as London and Los Angeles there have been protests and demonstrations demanding government action. There have been marches on the National Assembly and nationwide demonstrations.
The Sultan of Sokoto has called for intensified efforts to rescue the students. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheik has condemned the kidnappings describing Boko Haram as misguided and smearing the name of Islam.  Yet all of this has been to no avail causing Indignation and frustration with government’s inability to rescue the girls to grow. In other climes a leader facing re-election would be doing everything to bring back the girls and sail into the polls on a high note. Not so over here where President Jonathan appears far too pre-occupied with the intrigues of ensuring his victory to be bothered about their girls. His supporters say the matter is not an election issue and should not be “politicized”. If the failure of government to protect its citizens isn’t an election issue, then what is?