It is natural that the entire global public would cluster around three main positions on the situation and response of Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan with regard to one of the most bizarre acts of terrorism in the annals of the contemporary world – the abduction of over 200 students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State by insurgents 25 days ago.
Since the occurrence of this “dastardly appalling act” as the Northeast Elders would describe it, the attention of the entire global public has turned more sternly on Nigeria than has been the case with regard to the now four-year old wanton terror and carnage unleashed on the Northeast region of the country by the Boko Haram.
With the Nigerian public expressing its severest distress and anguish, characterized by public outrage in street protests, especially by Nigerian women, fervent prayers in places of worship, deep condemnation by reputable groups of the country’s citizens and the National Assembly, and numerous others unreported, the global public descended on the country with its sympathy and various weights of blames and condemnations, suggestions and proposals, on the act as well as the tracking and rescuing of the young girls.
The Nigerian military and government, chiefly commanded and led by President Jonathan and, by simple implication, mainly the President, bears the hugest brunt of the blames and condemnations, with President Barrack Obama of the United States of America, blasting the Nigerian authorities for their lackadaisical handling of the terror situation in Nigeria right from the onset, most lamentably characterized by its failure to discern its potentials for growth to dreadful dimensions on the global scale and, thus, nip it in the bud.
One cluster of the concerned public, global and Nigerian, thrust the entire blames and condemnation on the Nigerian authorities, by implication, President Jonathan, for the act, with even a sizable section of the cluster accusing the president of perpetrating the entire phenomenon of terror and genocide.
Another cluster share the blames and condemnations among the president, the Nigerian military, some influential socio-political groups in the country powered by some notorious foreign forces, all facilitated by the pathetically lousy attitude of Nigerians towards their own security as dire global insecurity situations evolve.
The third main cluster blames and condemns no one (at least not explicitly) for the situation, completely describing it as a most avoidable phenomenon sweeping across the global in strict accordance with the nexus of activities and causes and effects in the broad emergence of times. The position of this cluster does not, however, absolve President Jonathan and his military and government of any blame on the terror situation peaking at the abduction of the girls.
All these three main clusters, therefore, as well as most other concerned persons across the globe, seem categorical on squarely blaming President Jonathan and his military and government for the terror act, especially with regard to the quality of being proactive on the occurrence of the undesirable situations.
Is President Jonathan this blameworthy on the girls abduction specifically and the entire terror situation in the country in general?
Justice and fairness are virtues. The will to practice them without any iota of prejudice is, itself, a virtue. President Jonathan and his political structure deserve to be seen, in the light of this most dreadful phenomenon, with the eye of justice and fairness, especially on the scale of similar global seemingly intractable, indeed escalating, terror situations in spite of practically all measures applied by more superior proactive and active systems where terror has sojourned for a comparatively longer time.
The very honest and sincere grave concern the president has expressed on the situation testifies to the fact that he is truly most ruffled. This is further testified by the sympathy and proposals attracted from the international community, with, most notably, the US sending a detachment of its Marines, Britain proposing to deploy its tracking intelligence and China proposing to assist with the tacking technology towards the successful rescue of the girls.
President Jonathan and his government seems stopping at nothing to ensure the successful tracking and rescue of the abducted girls, and they should be fairly seen in the light of all efforts they are making towards that cheerful end, assisted by the international community.