President Goodluck Jonathan made a mockery of his sympathy visit to the site of Monday’s devastating bombing at the Nyanya Motor Park, near Abuja, in which 75 innocent Nigerians died, while 254 others were injured, by attending a political rally in Kano, barely 24 hours after the horrendous incident. Jonathan led party chiefs to Kano where they received Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor, who recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party. His televised dance and backslapping while the dead were yet to be buried and with the fate of survivors still hanging in the balance were another blunder. No wonder the President’s action has provoked national outrage.
But the Presidency says the public indignation is an attempt by politicians to score cheap political points. Labaran Maku, the Information Minister, says, “You will notice that whenever there is any significant story, something will just come negatively. So the purpose is to demoralise, disrupt government, society and to set people against each other and create paralysis…So if we are to say we will do nothing because of the strike, then it means that terrorists would have succeeded in putting a stall each time they strike on our country.” As he put it, going to Kano was a loud statement that terrorists will not stop this country from working.
How trite and lousy. The victims need to see their President as being there for them in their time of grief. Dancing at a political rally is not the way to mourn the dead, neither does it have anything to do with state matters. Attending a political rally so soon after the tragedy is definitely not an important state function that cannot be shelved.
Compounding Jonathan’s indiscretion was that 100 schoolgirls were abducted by terrorists from the Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, that same Monday night in an operation that lasted about six hours. Four days after, there were still conflicting figures of the number of girls that had been rescued. While the President has the right to his campaign, there are many ways to send a message to the terrorists that they cannot grind the country to a halt.
The President may be right by resisting pressures to overreact or to play to the gallery. However, he has handled the response so tactlessly, which raises questions about both his sense of judgment and that of his political party, the PDP. The attempt to play down the human destruction and psychological torture of the horrific incident came across as quite numbing. It is nothing but a strange, insensitive and selfish preoccupation with his re-election bid in 2015.
Nothing demonstrates this more than his comments at the scene of the Abuja horror. He had said, “The issue of Boko Haram is temporary. Government is doing everything to…move our country forward in spite of all the distractions ….” But, we want to ask, are Boko Haram killings that started in 2009, and have claimed about 2,000 lives this year alone and about 15,000 since then, a temporary problem that can be wished away just like that?
We are sure a leader who understands the nature and dimension of Islamist terrorism and its extremist ideology would not label such a gruesome act a “distraction.” World leaders and governments know that instead of ignoring this extremist ideology, they have to confront it in all its virulent forms. Instead of embarking on the rally, Jonathan should have remained at his command post, leading his security team on how to track down the perpetrators and map out new tactics in engaging the religious nihilists.
There are, indeed, leadership lessons to be learnt from Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera, during the Chilean Mine Rescue in August 2010. The miners were trapped by a massive collapse in the roof of the mine only to be rescued after 69 days underground. But President Pinera was there for them, waiting at the mouth of the shaft through the night and morning to greet and hug the men as they emerged from the red, white and blue capsule – the Chilean colours. In Malaysia, its Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has also been heavily involved in the drive to find the missing Malaysian airliner, MH370, that disappeared last month with 239 aboard, regularly assuring the relatives of those concerned about the progress being made.
The country is haemorrhaging and all Jonathan is concerned about is to mount the rostrum in Kano for politicking and later head for Ibadan, Oyo State, for birthday merriment.
But we have seen this before. Shortly after insurgents killed 75 people in bomb attacks on three churches in Zaria and also killed 25 others in Damaturu, Yobe State, in June 2012, Jonathan headed for Brazil with a large entourage to attend the Rio Earth Summit, while five days after his arrival from Brazil, he took off to Brussels, Belgium, for a conference organised by the World Customs Organisation.
The President had also stirred indignation by refusing to visit the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State, where 59 innocent pupils were killed by terrorists, but he was content to visit traditional rulers in Kano, Oyo and Ile-Ife during the same period.
There have been other dastardly killings in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Adamawa, Taraba and Borno, yet the stock response of the President does not go beyond condemning the actors. Last month, the marauders murdered about 103 people in Katsina State, an orgy of bloodletting that coincided with Jonathan’s visit. Early this month, 105 people lost their lives to suspected Fulani herdsmen in Zamfara State. Why is the President so comfortable amidst all this carnage? Are the trappings of Executive office more important to him than the nitty-gritty of hands-on leadership?
The President’s action is an embarrassment to Nigerians. He cannot continue like this, behaving as if these killings are part of our national life. Jonathan must rise to the challenge posed by terrorism and other security issues. He must come out in specific terms with what he is doing to keep us safe.
Punch.
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