It must have dawned on many of our
readers by now that more than the
speculated issue of the lack of equipment
and motivation on the part of the Nigerian
security forces, politics, the game of
power made possible the painful and
indefensible loss of those girls.
If anybody is looking for an authority on
this, they should go to the speech of the
First Lady of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, Mrs. Dame Patience Jonathan.
Rude Nigerians on the social networks
may dismiss her as not being savvy or
lacking in finesse or refinement.
My admiration for her as in this case is in
the fact that she shoots from the hip.
There are no pretensions about her. I
don’t call that crudity. Thus, when the
whole world was puzzled by the inaction,
and the fact that the leader of nation from
which 273 girls were stolen had not
publicly said a word, his wife, the one with
whom he shares the same pillow and so
the most qualified person to know what
resided in the deepest recesses of his mind
let the cat out of the bag. She cried on
television as she narrated the tale of
conspiracy against her husband,
presumably by devilish actors
masquerading as political leaders
and
charged at the grieving mothers that they
were lying as there was no girl missing.
The Punch quoted the mother of the
Nation asking the distraught audience she
put together, including a set of
representatives of the girls’ mothers “…
Will you believe that any children got
missing?” and the women in attendance
chorused “No”.
When they steal cows, (not to talk of
human beings) as rustling takes a gradual
hold in these parts, the first thing the
owner does the next morning is to trace
the footmarks and follow. They don’t wait
for three weeks to do this.
It is clear from here that the slow reaction
to the abductions was simply on account
of politics and the desperate greed for
power, which was shown by the President
scurrying around to secure a further four
years in office, adding to the six he has
nearly spent without doing the work that
justifies it.
If they come now or if they are finally
brought back, the girls will in probability
return as transformed. It is a syndrome
akin to child soldiers. I am seeing beyond
pregnancies, which is not ruled out. Those
unlucky among them may come back
diseased – HIV-AIDS, hepatitis, VDs and
mental illnesses arising from trauma.
Two important developments hold a little
hope that government’s insensitivity may
give way to meaningful action to bring
succor to the grieving families and the
nation.
One is the publication of the list of the
abductees by the official of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, CAN. This should
have the instant effect of imbuing the
claims of the grieving parents with
credibility, that their children and wards
had indeed been stolen. Even before Mrs.
Jonathan, doubts had been expressed by
many, if any girls had been missing at all.
It was, nonetheless a monumental disaster
for Mrs. Jonathan to have ordered the
arrest and detention of the three women
sent to her as representatives of the
inconsolable mothers.
The second advantage gained by “we the
people” is the effective campaign by
Nigerians and others on the social
networks using hashtags
as#BringBackOurGirls, which has reached
tens of millions of people and has drawn
international attention to the abductions.
This has in turn warranted the keen
interest on the issue as shown by the
lavish coverage of the rallies taking place
around the world. All the major networks
– CNN, BBC, Sky, and Al-jazeera have
demoted important stories such as the
trial of Pistorius and the unfolding events
in Ukraine in favour of this one.
Sadly for Nigeria, a great opportunity to
win the favour of investors on the heels of
the re-basing of the economy through the
World Economic Forum starting today
will be over-shadowed by the issue of the
stolen girls and the two recent bomb
blasts around the capital Abuja. Activists
threaten that they will crowd out the
summit from the Twitter. The two
incidents of kidnapping and bombing have
justifiably raised alert and risk levels
around the federal capital. These acts of
terror need to be investigated and those
behind them speedily brought to book.
Important lessons must equally be
imbibed by government and citizens alike.
It is clear by now that the 15-year rule by
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has
totally ignored the safety of the common
man. The police is kept away from their
primary duty and have become busy
protecting politicians. Senators,
governors, local government chairmen
and the heads of government companies
and departments have V.I.P. security at
the cost of the common men. Security is at
very low level everywhere in the country.
While it will be uncharitable not to give
recognition to the security services for
commendably curbing some of the
planned attacks in spite of the poor
equipment and motivation that they bear,
the larger body of citizens must rise to the
new challenges of intelligence gathering.
The only way we can save ourselves is by
learning the importance of neighborhood
security, which builds up to overall
national security. Nigeria is large and her
population is equally large. Freedom to
most ordinary Nigerians means the right
of everyone to come in, settle here, do
whatever they wish to do and because we
are so many, nothing can be monitored.
Shameful and criminal acts of terrorism
must be denounced especially by Muslim
leaders whose religion is being defamed
by these actions. The world’s big powers
should come forward and help rescue
these girls before it is too late. Any
pretentions to Imelda Marcos, by
surrogacy or imitation by the First Lady
will only serve as a distraction. This must
equally be discouraged. Above all, our
government needs to conduct its affairs in
a way that places national interest about
narrow, selfish political interests.
Otherwise we will all be dead by the time
someone emerges in 2015 with the
certificate as having “won” the election.
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