We have been following developments since the abduction almost a month ago of over 200 students from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
In the first instance, it appears because the kidnap incidence happened on the night of the April 14 Nyanya bombing, government and the armed forces were too busy attending to blast victims and mounting road blocks in the Nyanya axis than looking for the kidnapped girls.
That alone created an information gap which today has not only rendered us powerless as a nation but crippled us at the mercy of international aid, since our defence chiefs have publicly declared that they have no clues of the whereabouts of the girls. What this tells those with the benefit of hindsight is that the ranks of our armed forces may have been so depleted by the war against Boko Haram that we don’t even have sufficient personnel or intelligence to police the country and keep track of more than 200 girls who should have been transported in several vehicles to whatever location. It suggests that some sections of the country are on their own as they are not covered by the intelligence of army or police operations.
With the helpless scenario, one recalls a one-time claim by the Nigerian military that infamous leader of the Boko Haram sect Ibrahim Shekau may have been killed, but not even the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed forces, President Goodluck Jonathan could substantiate the claim, making it a fluke.
Worthy of note is the intervention by Nigeria’s First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan who took the bull by the horn when it appears all hope is lost to invite Borno State stakeholders and ask relevant questions which led to shocking revelations.
What will a school’s Matron be doing to warrant her absence on a day students she has nurtured for about six years are writing their passing out exams?
With Boko Haram’s rampage in the North Eastern parts why would any state government not provide or guarantee sufficient security for students writing exams in schools?
What type of gain would make a public official in the rank of a director lay claim to being a parent of one of the abducted girls only to sharply deny her claim when being interrogated by the First Lady in the quest for solutions to the confusion?
Why has the Principal of the school not narrated the abduction drama till date?
In which of the modern day examinations will students not submit passport photographs and why therefore are the abducted girls faceless till date?
Why did the Nigerian military initially lie about freeing some one hundred of the girls only to later retract the lie?
Like the First Lady, we are forced to exclaim “Chai! There is God ooo”. These burning questions begging for answers must have moved the compassionate First Lady to exclaiming in tears those words which are the latest joke in town.
Even female folks who should join in asking the right questions and providing promising leads where the men may have failed or lacking are in the vanguard of mocking the First Lady or the outcome of her attempt. The same women will tomorrow push for women liberation but are not ready to stand by their own in such perilous times.
While the First Lady may appear deficient in a Language that is not her own, she portrays no single trace of complex which could have consumed some other women in her shoes by now. Maybe Nigerian women should recommend another ‘polished’ wife for President Jonathan and throw away their entire woman liberation gamut to the trashcan. But we believe that mock her or not, the First Lady has contributed her own quota in the search for those missing girls and she does not appear as one that will rest on her oars.
In all of these the bottom line is we as citizens should be spared the national and international embarrassment by the government and the armed forces as efforts should be intensified using the offered assistance of the foreign nations to locate and rescue the missing girls. We are afraid to admit that should anything untoward happen to the missing girls, it poses grave threats to the education of the girl-child particularly in the northern parts of this country.
Written By Julius Ikpen
