A defining moment for the Muhammadu Buhari presidency would be the day the
\nChibok girls are freed from captivity and reunited with their tormented
\nparents. That would definitely end the drama, political controversies and
\ncertain mercantile contrivances the macabre episode created. The world was
\nrepulsed when some 200 plus female students set to write their final
\nexaminations were herded into waiting trucks and ferreted into unknown
\ndestinations. Finding the girls would effectively make Nigeria\u2019s president
\na hero. And the reverse would apply as well if the mirage is prolonged and
\nunresolved.<\/p>\n
The world knows that the release of school girls abducted by the Boko
\nHaram terrorist sect on April 14, 2014 in Chibok, Borno State was one of
\nthe sensational campaign promises upon which the repented ex dictator won
\nelection last March. But like the president said in his Tuesday interview
\nwith CNN renowned journalist, Christiane Amanpour, it is too early to
\njudge his performance in office. But there is some level of consensus that
\nthe ugly abduction scandal should be treated with more urgency.
\nFortunately, Buhari seems to be aware of the full weight of the pressures
\nof his promises especially with regards to freedom for the girls.
\nAccording to him during his inauguration speech, \u201cwe cannot claim to have
\ndefeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other
\ninnocent persons held hostage by insurgents. This government will do all
\nit can to rescue them alive.\u201d The Chibok saga had sparked a worldwide rage
\npoured out on social media with one of the biggest campaigns of 2014 on
\nTwitter with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls circulated more than five
\nmillion times. In fact, a frontline campaigner for the safe return of the
\ngirls both in the real and virtual world, Oby Ezekwesili, a prominent
\nformer national official, underscores the burden on Buhari thus: “The
\nrescue of the Chibok girls would be the strongest statement this
\ngovernment could make for having respect for the sanctity and dignity of
\nevery Nigerian life.” Her group which champions the crusade for the
\nrelease of the girls recently met with President Buhari apparently to
\nreceive assurances from the new occupant of Aso Rock that the girls have
\nnot been forgotten in captivity. Former president Goodluck Jonathan
\ncourted more controversies for his administration by refusing to grant
\naudience to the group.
\nIt is therefore understandable that the president would concede as
\nsuggested by Amanpour\u2019s question, that negotiation with the terrorists was
\nnot a foreclosed option provided it would buy the captives the much craved
\nliberty and by extension, put an end to the national embarrassment the
\nsordid Chibok affair threw the country into over a year ago. \u201cIf we are
\nconvinced that we can have the girls, why not, we can negotiate. Our goal
\nis to have the girls. We will ask them what they want and we can free the
\ngirls; return them to their school; unite them with their parents and
\nrehabilitate them, so, they can live a normal life,\u201d Buhari told his CNN
\nhost. He was also quick to add a caveat though: government would not be
\nstampeded into talks with boko haram until it is reasonably sure it is
\ndealing with the right leadership of the now amorphous deadly sect. \u201cWe
\nhave to be careful about the credibility of various Boko Haram groups. You
\nneed to be careful that you are talking to the right group,\u201d he said
\nbenefitting of course from hindsight where his predecessor in office was
\nhoodwinked into a fake truce with boko haram by persons of questionable
\nintents.
\nMedia reports of possible talks between the government and representatives
\nof the sect have neither been denied nor confirmed by government.
\nPresidential adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, had in a
\ncryptic reaction to the reports said the Buhari administration \u201cwill not
\nbe averse\u201d to talks with Boko Haram. \u201cThe new initiative reopens an offer
\nmade last year to the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to
\nrelease the 219 students in exchange for 16 Boko Haram detainees,\u201d an
\nunnamed activist said to be fronting for the sect was quoted in the
\nreports.
\nThese lines of apparent policy direction by the Buhari administration on
\nBoko Haram appear to be syncing with the advocacy of Borno State governor,
\nKashim Shettima who has unabashedly canvassed and promoted amnesty for the
\nblood-sucking sect as a way of ending the reign of terror. The point is
\nnot lost at all to keen observers that this governor was on the entourage
\nof the president to the United States for the just concluded state visit.
\n\u201cUnless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition that will be
\nhallmarked by the continuing destruction of lives and property, it becomes
\nimperative that willing members of the Boko Haram sect that want to come
\nout of the bush must be given the opportunity to be de-radicalized and
\nthen rehabilitated to become useful citizens of society,\u201d the governor
\nsaid on the day of his inauguration into office for a second term. A call
\nas disagreeable as the complicit postures of the caller himself, amnesty
\nfor boko haram is like awarding a medal to a serial rapist simply because
\nhe has consistently escaped apprehension and still has his lethal balls
\nbetween his legs. That is not what candidate Buhari promised Nigerians
\nduring the electioneering campaigns. He promised to liquidate the sect
\ninto final capitulation. It is to that promise he will be held accountable
\nby Nigerians. Anything less would be tantamount to shifting the goal posts
\nin the middle of the game. The likes of Shettima can identify the
\nrepentant vagabonds in their jurisdictions and offer them prizes for mass
\nmurder. But the cry of justice by well-meaning Nigerians cannot be
\noutweighed by his uncanny and unthinkable proposition. The governor has
\nargued that \u201cit is never easy to accept back into the community, those who
\nhave taken up arms, killed, pillaged, raped and destroyed. But in the long
\nrun, society must make very expensive choices for peace, reconciliation
\nand development.\u201d But he fails to accept the fact that there can never be
\nreconciliation if the offending (read marauding) party stoutly declines to
\naccept his (devilish) culpability and be expressly contrite enough to
\ncommit to refrain from his awful past in the search for genuine
\nforgiveness. It is Mr. Shettima\u2019s cranky advocacies, puerile propositions
\nand complicit conduct (for instance in the sad Chibok kidnap when he
\napproved contrary to federal advice that the school girls proceed with the
\nexams without adequate security cover) that have muddled up any attempt to
\nhave a coherent national narrative on boko haram as argued by this column
\nin a penultimate article. Now that the Borno governor has a \u201clistening
\npresident, who would be willing to assist us with utmost dispatch, to
\naccelerate our development\u201d contrary to \u201ca hostile (Jonathan-led) Federal
\nGovernment, which lived in denial about the savagery of Boko Haram and
\nwhich also saw the insurgency from the most perverted, narrow and
\nirresponsible prism, that somehow, the insurgency had been fuelled against
\nit, by the political and other elites of this part of Nigeria,\u201d the
\nprobability that President Buhari may fall for the amnesty proposal cannot
\nbe dismissed. In retrospect, Buhari had before the campaign erroneously
\ncompared the problem of boko haram with the challenge once presented by ex
\nmilitants of the Niger delta and had canvassed for amnesty for the sect.
\nBut knowing that such line of argument would do maximum damage to his
\nquest to become president, he had (or seen to have) jettisoned such
\nclannish and narrow dispositions and promised to crush boko haram like he
\ndid the Matatsine sect decades ago. Thus, granting amnesty would be
\ndismissing his own promise to crush the sect on assumption of office. And
\nthat would also be quite contrary and hypocritical since he (and his
\nparty, the APC) had consistently queried the dual carrot-and-stick
\napproach employed by the preceding administration. Any vitiation of his
\nresolve or taunted ability to bring the sect to its knees would erode the
\nworldwide acclaim which heralded his ride to power. According to renowned
\nTime magazine in its profile of Buhari when it listed him among the list
\nof 100 most influential people in the world recently, the president \u201cnow
\nhe has to live up to voters\u2019 expectations from battling the Boko Haram
\ninsurgency to tackling endemic corruption.\u201d The Chibok test case stares
\nhim starkly in the face. And the world waits on him.
\nFollow writer on Twitter @resourceme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A defining moment for the Muhammadu Buhari presidency would be the day the Chibok girls are freed from captivity and reunited with their tormented parents. That would definitely end the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n