Tamuno Dagogo
The unusual tends to happen in Nigeria. In fact, recent events in Nigeria have not happened before and give the impression that there is no government in Nigeria. Some recent events have tended to attract undue and negative attention to the country though curiously enough, the government of the day has become accustomed to explaining this strange phenomenon as not limited to Nigeria, but a world-wide problem.
The recent bizarre abduction of 276 young school girls from the dormitory of the government girls’ school in Chibok local government area of Borno state is the clearest example of the failure of leadership or to say the worst, total absence of the latter. It is a crude manifestation of poor and unenlightened governance which has ravaged this country for some years now, and which appears to have entered a critical phase.
The unfortunate school girls were abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists who have ravaged the North east region of the country for the past five years. Few literate people in the country, let alone government officials can swear that they are unaware of the philosophy and belief of the Boko Haram, which is anti- western education and the idea and reality of a modern state organised on the principle of democracy, freedom and human rights. The government was forced to impose a partial state of emergency in the three most troubled states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa which enabled the military to be deployed in large numbers with a view to not only containing the terror acts but also routing the latter.
Since 2009 when the terror acts of the insurgent group started, thousands of innocent and helpless Nigerians have been killed and maimed through bomb attacks or slaughter with machetes and cutlass. This includes hundreds of school children in boarding houses who had their throats slit while sleeping! This has made many Nigerians to wonder whether the country still has an army! The bewilderment of Nigerians is further worsened by the fact that because of the insurgency, the security and defence budget has taken the number one position in the past four years with a whole new army division established in Maiduguri city in the region to deal with the insurgency.
The recourse to kidnapping of students, by the terrorists perhaps indicates that the insurgents have grown weary of killing through bombs and machetes and are trying something new and incredulous. The point is that aware of the hatred and disdain with which the insurgents regard education and those who seek it, what would it take the government, Federal and State to ensure that adequate security is provided at a school hosting student doing examination? The question is, ‘should those in authority be told that public places hosting large numbers of people namely schools, motor parks, places of worship and hospitals in the most vulnerable parts of the country, ought to have 24 hours surveillance by armed security personnel or what is the purpose of the huge security budget and the establishment of a new army division, in the north east region?
That the shameful abduction was carried out successfully more than three weeks ago, and it is only now that the authorities set up a committee to find out the number of students abducted and how to find and rescue them shows that the nation lacks a credible army and more importantly, a competent Commander- in Chief!
The Chibok kidnap saga is clearly a case of poor governance and confusion in the way and manner the affairs of state are being conducted in today’s Nigeria. It is even more shocking when reports by the international television channel, Aljazeera revealed that the First Lady of the Republic who before now have disturbed the peace of all of us with her supposed love for women and children upbraided some of the women who protested in Abuja calling them troublemakers. The madam was further reported to have accused some of the protesting women with plotting against her husband’s presidential ambition in 2015, and ordered the arrest and detention of some of them!
Events like these are alien to Nigeria, where those who should be aggrieved because of the calamity that has befallen the citizenry and seek for ways and means of giving them succour, rather place the quest for more power ahead of the people’s welfare! We remember what happened when the first deadly bomb explosion rocked Nyanya town on the outskirts of Abuja. Barely 24 hours later, President Jonathan and his happy- go –lucky party men of the People Damage People (PDP) went to Kano resplendent in the finest clothes to hold a rally to drum support for the 2015 presidential campaign of their party.
The poor and ineffective governance indices of the present administration are all too glaring. Our prayer is that God in his mercy touch the heart of the Boko Haram to free the Chibok girls whose travails has brought tears to the eyes of all Nigerians and people the world over. The promises of President Jonathan and his noisy friends in the US, the UK, France and China cannot save these daughters of the nation. We look up to God.
Dagogo wrote from Jabi, Abuja
