By Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
Abuja
The #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocacy group has described its guided tour to Sambisa as “beneficial.”
It further stated that “the Minister of Information and Culture, who led the guided tour along with the Minister of Defence, revealed that negotiations were under way to release our 83 girls earlier promised.”
In a statement issued by the Convener, Oby Ezekwesili, and co-convener, Aisha Yesufu, said: “We saw highly motivated, highly professional, very dedicated and inspiring air troop of the Nigerian Air Force who, significantly, are in their 20s. The trip was beneficial and we learned a lot.
“Sambisa Forest is a vast expanse of land covering several hundred square kilometres, whereas Camp Zero is only about 2 square kilometres. Whereas Camp Zero is destroyed and desolate, it represents only a fraction of the large expanse known as Sambisa forest. This explains why our troops are still in Sambisa Forest even after declaring victory when Camp Zero fell.”
#BBOG, however, said there was “no contradiction between the recovery of Camp Zero by our troops and the possibility that our girls may have been relocated to other locations within the vast Sambisa Forest.”
“There had been only one fighter jet in the entire theatre of war until recently when four were added, with one more undergoing repairs. Through this NAF operation which we were part of, we know more on the basis of which to scrutinise the federal government and the military and demand accountability.
“Failure of governance produces the nature of escalation of the insurgency uprising. Had resources that is, leadership, knowledge, expertise, equipment, intelligence, etc had been deployed effectively earlier on, we would have vanquished the enemy a long time ago.
“Ensuring timely response and decision-making is a major lesson for our government, going forward. Delays have been costly in terms of loss of lives, time, and money.
“Technology plays a key role not only in fighting and winning the war but in telling the story. Experiencing the technical war room in the ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) process using the latest technology helped us learn about the coordination between the air and ground troops in intelligence gathering, analysis, and operations.”
The group recommended that the federal government must evolve in its current attitude to citizens’ demand for accountability.
They further enjoined it to embrace the culture of continually being answerable to citizens.
‘The less antagonistic government acts towards those in the society who scrutinise its actions and demand accountability, the faster progress society makes.”
