The other day, a photo splash was done on Facebook showing leaders of western countries carrying their bags without assistance from their retinue of aides; but along with those photographs was one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Aide de Camp wielding bags. The morale of the pictures: it is only in Nigeria that you see such things as a leader unable to carry his own bags!
Also, another photo that made the rounds on social media was one of former Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a public train without the regular number of security operatives around him. What purpose was this meant to serve? To show that in other climes, undue premium is not paid to security as it is done in Nigeria.
But the mischievous purveyors of those shots got it wrong on many counts. Comparing western cultures with the total loss of values to ours where elders and leaders are revered is perhaps the most important. Also, giving an impression that Ahmadinejad would contemplate going around without security when he was in power is preposterous and unthinkable. A PR gimmick or photo taken out of context can only be the handiwork of idle and evil minds that can be found nowhere else but the chambers of the opponents of the like-able Jonathan.
This raises the question of an alleged gift from the presidency to Chibok parents and girls who escaped from the captivity of the Boko Haram insurgents. They had visited President Jonathan in Aso Rock Villa. According to the story the opposition elements have feasted on and which their media wing, exemplified by a newspaper said to belong to one of their leaders, the leadership of the Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), the group representing the Chibok people in Abuja disclosed that it was only N22.4m that was shared to the visitors to Villa and not N100m as widely reported.
KADA spokesman, Dauda Iliya, told journalists: “It is noteworthy that our primary goal is the safe return of the girls that are still in captivity. It is sad that we are losing sight of this to the allegation of sharing money. We therefore want the world to understand that we, KADA, stand by our earlier position and did not demand, receive or handle any finances throughout the process of the visit.
“On the night of the 22nd July, 2014 at about midnight, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties who had been co ordinating the visit of the side of the Presidency, visited the hotel and told the 51 escaped girls who came that the President sent them a token of N100,000 each and accordingly gave them the said sum without prior discussion with any KADA official or any other person in the community.
“He equally gave the sum of N200,000 each to 61 parents out of the 122 parents that came on the visit. 51 parents were given N100,000 each on the basis that the money given to him was not enough to go round at N200,000. The remaining 10 parents were not given any amount of money.
“As for the money given to some parents back home in Chibok, it was the sum of N1,000,000.00 given to them by the Hon. Member of the House of Reps. Representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency, which is the source of the alleged N7,000.00 given to parents in Chibok that were not part of the visit.
“While we acknowledge that any well intended support for our suffering population which has lost its means of livelihood since the events of April 14 and subsequent attacks could be welcome, however the approach that the Presidency adopted has brought reproach and dishonour to our community in the eyes of the public that has supported us since the abduction of our daughters.
“We hereby state categorically that no amount of money whatsoever was given to KADA leadership to share among the parents and escaped girls or for whatsoever reason and therefore the allegation is completely baseless, false and malicious.
“We clearly spelt out to the Presidency through the office of the Chief of Staff that we shall not be involved with any financial transaction whatsoever, including payment of transportation from Chibok to Yola, flight by air from Yola to Abuja, hotel accommodation and feeding in Abuja, and intra-city transportation while in Abuja.
“When the Presidency requested us to invite parents and escaped Chibok girls against 22nd July, 2014, we accepted the responsibility on the condition that we shall facilitate by way of contacting and mobilizing the parents and escaped girls thereby playing the sole role of facilitators.”
With the clarification coming from KADA, it is now clear that the mischief intended by certain individuals and groups over the bloated N100m figure was clearly meant to make the presidency look bad in all of its efforts to free the abducted girls and ameliorate the dire financial situation that the affected parents find themselves.
What KADA’s statement has also done is to show the commendable extent the presidency went to meet the parents and the girls, including but not limited to, payment of transportation from Chibok to Yola, flight by air from Yola to Abuja, hotel accommodation and feeding in Abuja, and intra-city transportation while in Abuja. It is interesting to know that with all its noise, the association representing Chibok people in Abuja did not put its money where its mouth has always been.
Evidently, it appears that the equally loud-mouthed #BringBackOurGirls campaigners made no tangible input to the goodwill of the presidency, except to go to the Unity Fountain to seek undue publicity and please its founders which include, as we have now found out, courtesy of its own UK-based PR firm, All Progressives Congress (APC). So much for loving the Chibok people!
The BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) group stated that the traumatised parents did not need money but psycho-social support, but it was foolish enough not to state that none of the traumatized parents rejected the money, meaning that while it was not what they needed most, it was still needed.
The BBOG spokesman, Rotimi Olawale, said, “Why should the Presidency give money to the parents? What is it meant for? It is a shameless thing to do. Is it money the parents need, because money cannot solve the trauma they are going through now? What the parents need is psycho-social support and this is what we expected the government to provide for them. For us in the BringBackOurGirls, our focus is on bringing back the girls and we can’t be distracted by this controversy which was meant to cause disunity in the little Chibok community.”
The group did not define what it meant by psycho-social support and how such support that it provided has helped the parents. It is also amazing the argument by some, like this annoying group that when a traumatized people visit the president and he speaks soothing words to them, and they raise issues that can be dealt with for the moment, the president or any of his concerned aides should not do anything.
And if the president or his aides did not do anything, it is irritants like this group that will scream to the high heavens. While presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, was right in claiming that nothing happened in the Aso Villa, since we now know it happened in a hotel, what actually is wrong in our clime for a leader to give gifts to his visitors? And anyway, is it only in our climes that leaders give gifts?
Whatever the case, rabble rousers in the opposition, and their parastatals like the #BringBackOurGirls group should keep their mouths in the “permanent condition of shut up.”
Written by Nicholas Ikejiani.
