It is now one year since Islamist terrorists of the Boko Haram sect stormed the premises of the Government Secondary School in the serene town of Chibok in Borno State and made away, unchallenged, with close to 300 schoolgirls. The girls, who were preparing for their final examinations when that cruel fate befell them, have remained in captivity ever since, with any hope of their eventually breathing the air of freedom ebbing away by the day. Their fate since that forced journey into the unknown has become a matter of conjecture.
When the news of the incident of that fateful night – April 14, 2014 – broke the following day, there were many who probably reasoned that, with a responsible and responsive government in place, the girls would soon be reunited with their loved ones. Even the girls must have harboured in the inner recesses of their minds the thought that their rescue would come as a matter of course. The escape of 57 of their colleagues, who took advantage of a breakdown of the truck that was conveying them to mount a successful bid for freedom, could only serve to strengthen that thought.
But in a widely-criticised move on April 15, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan went dancing at a political rally in Kano. The insensitivity attracted global outrage because this was a period that a rescue plan was still feasible, in addition to the fact that Boko Haram had also just killed 76 people at Nyanya motor park in Abuja on April 14.
However, with the passage of time, it is becoming increasingly clear that the girls have been forgotten. After the initial outrage sparked by their abduction, and the global interest that followed, everyone seems to have moved on, abandoning them to their fate. Any references to them and their whereabouts are now merely incidental. In fact, the last time Jonathan spoke about them was during his recent reelection bid, when he said they were in Gwoza and would soon be rescued. Now, Gwoza has been liberated, according to the Nigerian military, yet, nothing has been heard about the whereabouts of the girls. It should not be so.
In the meantime, Nigerians and the outside world have had to depend on Boko Haram itself for information about the whereabouts of the girls and what fate must have befallen them. What happens to intelligence, which should play a major role in this kind of asymmetric engagement with the terrorists? At the early stages of their kidnap, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the blood-thirsty group that has killed estimated 15,000 people, had said through one of its video recordings that the girls had been converted to Islam. Before then, the man, not known for issuing empty threats, had threatened to sell the girls out as slaves or give out their hands in marriage, perhaps, to his group members. So far, it is still unclear what the real situation is.
It is often stated that the primary purpose of government is the protection of the lives and property of citizens. This means that government is supposed to minister primarily to the needs of the people, without which there is no need for government. This is the spirit that underpins governance in other parts of the world. This is what defines a nation and is also responsible for the patriotic propensity in the citizens.
For instance, it is a well known fact that whenever an American is in trouble in any part of the world, the American state will not rest until that citizen is freed, even if it means embarking on a risky military mission. When an American sailor, Richard Phillips, was taken in by marauding Somali pirates in 2009, acting on instructions from the president, Barack Obama, US naval commandos, were mobilised to his rescue. Not only did they shoot and kill the three pirates that held him captive in a lifeboat, they also captured one of the pirates who was later taken to America for trial. The then 53-year-old captain had only spent five days with the pirates before his rescue.
Also, when some North Korean border guards arrested two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, in 2009, and sentenced them to 12 years hard labour, a former President, Bill Clinton, undertook the long-haul trip to Pyongyang to secure their release. The fact that they crossed into North Korea from China without valid entry visas did not stop the United States from ensuring that they were released. There are records of several other successful expeditions that saw to the freedom of Americans whose lives were in danger in foreign lands, even though a few other attempts, including that aimed at rescuing hostages held by Iran in 1979, ended in a disaster.
Similarly, Israeli commandos, in 1976, undertook a special mission to Uganda, where 103 Israelis in a French airliner that was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were rescued. With the exception of three hostages, including one who was at the hospital when the raid took place, all the hostages were rescued from Entebbe, and flown back to Israel. The same Israeli government did not think twice before it unchained 1,027 Palestinian prisoners just to free a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, a sergeant, kidnapped by Hamas in 2006. These are examples of the premium placed on a citizen’s life in other countries.
If these countries could go to such lengths to rescue their citizens, there is no reason why Nigeria should not take a similar step to free the Chibok girls who are even being held within our shores. Jonathan still has six weeks to pull this off. If within six weeks he could liberate most of the territory seized by Boko Haram because of his reelection bid, then he should do even more within the remaining six weeks of his tenure to rescue the girls.
He has been hailed as a “statesman” and promised a favourable place in history for conceding defeat at the last presidential election. But he can never lay claim to true statesmanship for as long as 219 Nigerian girls remain in captivity under the control of the most barbaric and violent group of terrorists. If any danger befalls the girls, then those who were in a position to act but failed to do so, will live the rest of their lives with blood on their hands.
Punch.
No comments:
Post a Comment