If there was any doubt that President Goodluck Jonathan is clueless on how to confront the growing insecurity that is enveloping the country, his response to the kidnapping of 234 school girls by Boko Haram at Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno, in clearly unmistakable terms, depicts a government totally bereft of ideas and lacking in conscience and integrity and exalting in self-deceit and vainglory. In the wake of domestic and international pressure following the disappearance of the girls, Jonathan’s response was to constitute a “fact-finding” committee to be inaugurated at State House, next Tuesday, May 6; three weeks after the girls were abducted on April 14. This action is belittling and contemptible; it is an ill-advised, insensitive, unconscionable dereliction of duty and the President needs to reconsider his empty grandstanding and take some more robust action. Only a government groping in the dark would find attraction in the homicidal and self-defeating strategy of running down the clock in the face of a national emergency where time is the difference between life and death.
According to a laconic statement issued by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, on Friday, the committee would be saddled with fact finding task such as finding why the students were in school while their colleagues were on holiday, the identities and actual number of the abducted girls and how many of the girls have returned. The committee will devise strategy to engage the community in the rescue process, while also liaising with security operatives, stakeholders and Borno State Government on ways to carry out the rescue promptly. The committee will then advice the presidency, based on its findings, the best strategy to employ in saving the girls quickly. At a glance, the composition of the committee is curious; but the idea itself points to a lack of seriousness of purpose to rescue the missing girls which is shockingly embarrassing.
To begin with, it is crucial to note that no matter how hard the Presidency tries to rationalize its creation, the present committee is unnecessary. This is against the background of the fact that the girls were kidnapped in a state under emergency rule; where security agencies responsible for protecting lives and property, including rescuing kidnapped victims, for which the committee is supposedly set up, are already in existence. It is indeed baffling that Jonathan preferred another patronage dispensing committee of bureaucrats, instead of deploying all the means of state power at his disposal, with an all-out assault on the notorious Sambisa Forest, where the terrorists are believed to be holding the girls. Ideally the rational course of action by anyone pretending to be commander-in-chief is to put boots on the ground to comb every nook and cranny of the area. How can over 200 girls disappear without a trace? And after three long weeks, the response is a committee to determine the actual number and identities of the abducted girls; and why they were in school when their counterparts were on holidays?
Of what use is a committee in faraway Abuja whereas the girls were abducted in Borno State? What is it that the committee is expected to do better than the soldiers on the frontlines? Did it ever occur to the President that the committee’s terms of reference were as vague and meaningless as to invite public cynicism and ridicule? Will the committee members go to Borno or stay in air-conditioned offices in the Villa and wait for reports from the field and then inform the president? Does the President really need a committee to find the missing girls? These posers point to government’s nonchalance and insensitivity to the plight of the abducted girls. Public patience with government’s apathetic inaction is running out. Already, some concerned women have threatened to converge in Lagos and other parts of the country and later proceed to Borno, from where they would march naked into the Sambisa forest in search of the students. This is an act of desperation that can only make a bad situation worse.
Honestly, the way Jonathan has acted over this issue calls into question his sincerity and intentions because precedents in his counter-terrorism policies and actions do not provide any basis for optimism. Jonathan’s insipid response is a sad commentary on government’s appreciation of its basic obligation to its people and the extent to which it wants to be perceived and seen as government of the people for the people. Smarting from a heritage of lawlessness and prebendal politics, Jonathan has demonstrated a very low managerial quotient when it comes to going above and beyond the call of duty to meet the challenges of his office. The President’s apparent addiction to vindictive politics bears witness to his apathy to the kidnapping of the school girls, which unarguably is a not in my backyard problem.
However, in all this, it is the security operatives, most especially the military joint task force, that should be held accountable for this inveterate display of failure. Despite all the huge security appropriations, the Nigerian military has failed the nation. It is disheartening that a ragtag band of less trained terrorists can continue to challenge the Nigerian state; dictating the terms of engagement in their confrontation with the Nigeria security apparatus; undermining State authority, wreaking havoc and killing soldiers and security officers with impunity. No army worthy of its name can allow this to happen. Even if the Nigerian military pretends not to have a dog in this Boko Haram fight, the fact that army officers and military barracks have been targeted by the insurgents is enough reason for the military to reassert its authority over the territory called Nigeria. Pride and the love of country demand no less. Unfortunately, many security officers have proved to be highly unprofessional, unduly aggressive, alarmingly corrupt, incurably extortionist and generally unpatriotic.
As matters stand now, there is need for an urgent robust military intervention to bring those girls home. The way forward, therefore, is for Jonathan to stop playing the ostrich and making Nigeria the laughing stock on the international community. While it is arguable whether the government has done all within its powers to defeat the insurgency, the activities of Boko Haram reveals in bold relief the declining capacity of the Nigerian state to adequately fulfill its security and economic responsibilities to its citizens. The fact-finding committee on the kidnapped school girls speaks volumes about the failure of security agencies in the country.
The point must be made, with emphasis that the President must use the powers vested in him by the constitution to save the country from imminent collapse. The times call for strong and decisive leadership. Jonathan’s lackluster and kid gloves response to Boko Haram is perhaps borne out of a naïve believe that he can negotiate with the terrorists. Events will continue to prove him wrong. As the world waits and hopes for the kidnapped school girls, Jonathan must abandon his accustomed indecisiveness and lead from the front. Until he rises to the power and authority of his office, he will never be able to raise the nation from the throes of death to a new dawn of peace and prosperity. To regain respect in the comity of nations, Nigeria needs visionary leadership as an imperative for national survival.
