The loud but needless controversy over the aborted visit by President Goodluck Jonathan to Chibok in Borno State to meet with some of the parents of the over 200 abducted schoolgirls in the town, is yet another needless and contrived distraction against the backdrop of the supercilious Boko Haram insurgency and the embarrassingly obvious spectacle of presidential insensitivity and incompetence in finding and rescuing the kidnapped girls and bringing them home to their distraught families. The infantile denials by the Presidency and the explanations made, over the cancelled trip have been so illogical and nonsensical to give rise to the conclusion that the visit could not have been cancelled in good faith. The palpable sense of national outrage is therefore justified, especially as the girls are still missing and interest in their plight has plummeted since the story first became the latest cause célèbre on the Internet.
Speculation was rife last Thursday about the President’s purported trip to Chibok. Available accounts said the President was due in Chibok to meet with the families of the abducted girls; from where he would travel to Paris, France to attend a security summit on Boko Haram, hosted by the French President. Jonathan finally did not travel to Chibok and no official reason was given for the cancellation; rather the Presidency denied the President ever made plans to visit Chibok, and meet with the parents of the abducted schoolgirls who had earlier gathered at the town hall waiting for Mr. President. They were urged to go back to their respective houses and communities. Stating the Presidency’s position, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President, Reuben Abati said the only trip that was officially known on the President’s itinerary was the trip to Paris, where the President joined other regional African leaders to declare war on Boko Haram. “Every trip by the President is usually pre-announced. The Presidency did not at any time announce a trip to Chibok today. Ignore rumors,” Abati added.
However, despite the denial, it was gathered that a presidential advance team left from Aso Villa, Abuja for Maiduguri and as early as 6:00am on Friday, the airport road leading to the Nigerian Air Force Base, and the Government House, Maiduguri, were heavily manned by security operatives, including soldiers and policemen. However, they withdrew by 9:35am when the cancellation of the visit was rumored in the metropolis. Borno Governor Kashim Shettima, who had to rush back to Maiduguri in a chartered flight from Abuja, landed at the Maiduguri International Airport at about 9:00am, drove straight to Government House along with the Secretary to the state government, Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda, but declined to comment on the Presidential visit to Chibok.
This is inexcusable and demeans the President and his office. Why did the Presidency deny a trip which was so evident from the elaborate planning, including the gathering of the families of the abducted girls? “The statement issued by my office yesterday indicated very clearly that the President is scheduled to travel to Paris today. It is therefore wrong and malicious to allege that a non-existent trip has been cancelled,” Abati said. The Presidency argued that Jonathan did not go to Chibok because the girls are not being held there and also because the trip will not lead to their release. Nothing could be more nebulous and self-defeating as this contention. Clearly and unambiguously, it stands logic on its head. Worse still, it has triggered brickbat recriminations with the main opposition All Progressive Congress (APC), which said the aborted trip was symptomatic of the administration’s policy flip-flop in the fight against Boko Haram and “the most pedestrian justification of a presidential faux pas ever.”
In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC reiterated its accusation that the administration has bungled the fight against Boko Haram and is clueless in handling the abduction of the school girls. “With his utterances and actions or inaction, President Jonathan has deepened the pains of the parents and guardians of the girls, and indeed that of the whole nation, when he should have been the consoler-in-chief at such a difficult time for a nation he leads,” the APC said, adding: it “shows that President Jonathan does not understand the demands of his office, and that in good/bad times, he is to be seen and heard as the lead celebrant/lead consoler for his compatriots.” In essence, the presidency’s disclaimer did more damage to the President by opening him to the crossfire of the angry denunciation and bitter vituperations from his many critics and detractors.
This is not the kind of divisive position the President should want to identify with at this time when the nation is trying to rise above primordial sentiments and political fundamentalism. In a situation where insurgency is ravaging a part of the country, political leaders should be conciliatory and fence mending, not widening existing cracks. What could be more dishonest and self-serving than the argument that a presidential visit to Chibok will not rescue the kidnapped girls? Did it ever occur to the President and his advisers that this could offend other sensibilities? Is the government genuinely interested in the plight of the girls, their parents and well-wishers? Is the President so emotionally disconnected from the predicament of ordinary Nigerians? How would the President, Vice President, Senate President, any governor or minister have reacted if their daughters were so abducted?
Having advertised its gross incapacitation, having demonstrated in word and deed its cluelessness over the whereabouts of the abducted girls, the least that was expected of the President is to reassure the parents and families of the girls that his administration is going above and beyond the call of duty to bring the girls home. Over a month after the traumatizing abduction, Nigerians are at a loss over their location and condition. The slow, tacky and inept government response has been viewed as deliberate, giving credence to all shades of interpretations. There is no doubt, therefore, that the inaction of the government, as observed in its obvious incapacitation, its lack of diligence, is responsible for the viral worldwide reaction to the abduction.
The aborted visit to Chibok has exposed the ineptitude of the President’s Men, who continue to live in a fool’s paradise and are in denial of the fact that the world is now governed by citizens; and that the supremacy of citizens in governance is a well-established democratic culture, that has been augmented by information technology. The glaring absence of a consensual understanding of the Chibok incident at the corridors of power exposes the levity with which a situation as crucial as this was being handled. Deluded by a sense of misplaced hubris, the President and his sycophantic advisers are out of sync with the sentiments echoed by many well-meaning Nigerians, who see a presidential visit to Chibok as an issue of morality and compassion. Jonathan must visit Chibok. Failure to do so smacks of scandalous insensitivity, and seeming disregard for people outside the precinct of power. There should be no rest for the President unless the girls are rescued and returned to their families.
