The blame on how we got to the sorry state we are in today in the fight against the sect must go round – from the President to the political leadership in the north down to the rabble-rousers and peddlers of useless conspiracy theories on either side of the political divide. Politicians who thrive on grandstanding and finger pointing with the hope of reaping political capital out of the whole situation also share part of the blame. No one should really try to occupy the moral high ground in this matter or play the ostrich. True, President Jonathan shares the greatest blame because as the President and chief security officer of the country the buck stops or ought to stop on his table. But have we all done what we ought to have done or have we all been driven by feel good theories that blame everyone else but ourselves for everything that has gone wrong in the country, including the handling of the Boko Haram challenge?
I believe that President Jonathan has not handled the Boko Haram challenge as he ought to have done, not necessarily because he is weak but because he was probably captive to the conspiracy theory fervently believed by his loyalists and people from his own part of the country. For most of such people, Boko Haram is simply sponsored by the Northern political establishment to undermine his presidency. With this pervasive belief, the idea that the girls were kidnapped had to be interrogated using this theory: How come over 200 girls were abducted and no one saw them? Why was the school open when all other schools in the state had been closed down by the government because of insecurity, especially given that an official of WAEC claimed it warned the state government against conducting the exam on security grounds? How come Boko Haram operates freely in states under emergency rule? Exactly how many people were abducted? How come some girls were able to escape from the dreaded Boko Haram while others were not? There were so many gaps in the abduction story that many on President Jonathan’s side must be pardoned for doubting whether there was indeed any abduction at all. Even the alleged story that the army got an advance warning of the kidnap was interpreted differently by adherents of the two dominant conspiracy theories. For supporters of the President, it was yet evidence that the security forces – the hierarchy of which is controlled by officers from the north –is part of the conspiracy that is undermining the Jonathan presidency. For those in the north who believe that Boko Haram is sponsored by the Jonathan presidency to depopulate the north ahead of 2015 or to make Islam look bad, the same gaps in the abduction story were used to buttress their position. The fervent belief that the Jonathan presidency was behind Boko Haram in the north largely explains why some called the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno as a declaration of war against the north and why Governors Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and Wamako of Sokoto accused President Jonathan of carrying out genocide against the north.
One of the unintended effects of the Chibok abduction is that it has helped to pooh-pooh these conspiracy theories. Thanks to CNN, Al Jazeera and other foreign media houses, we now know that the girls were actually kidnapped. We have also seen the mothers of some of the victims speak to foreign media houses. We saw Shekau, thought to be the leader of Boko Haram, boast that he organized the abduction and showed about 130 of the kidnapped girls who had converted to Islam. And with his radical Islamic rhetoric, does he really look like someone to do the biddings of a Christian President? We also saw images of the carnage the sect wrought in Chibok and other parts of the north. The Daily Trust of 13 May 2014 in fact reported that residents of Rann, the headquarters of Kala-Balge local government area in Borno, repelled attacks by the sect with local implements, killing 200 of the insurgents. Do these pictures fit into the narrative that the sect is sponsored by northern leaders to undermine the Jonathan presidency? Hello conspiracy theorists! Can you now see that your hands are also steeped in the blood of the innocent?
Now that the Chibok kidnap has helped debunk the two dominant conspiracy theories – and everyone now calls the abducted girls ‘our girls’ – another conspiracy theory has reared its head: Boko Haram is now said to be the creation of America’s CIA to whittle down Nigeria’s supposedly growing influence in the continent. As Nigerians, we love feel good theories. It is never our fault so someone must be responsible for Boko Haram. Honestly I find this new conspiracy theory, which is attributed to Wikileaks, even more absurd than the now discredited conspiracy theories that supporters and opponents of Jonathan had revelled in. The truth is that Nigeria’s greatest attraction to countries like USA, Britain or China is in the potentially huge market it presents because of its population and resources – human and material. What purpose will Balkanizing the country serve them? The truth is that for many Western countries, Nigeria is too big to fail, not only because of the huge refugee problems that will be created if it unravels but also because such a balkanization could destabilize the West African sub-region. If any Western country is competing with Nigeria in the West African sub-region or likely to be threatened by its rising influence, it will probably be France because of its interests in the French-speaking West African countries, not the USA or Britain. This must not be construed as a defence of the USA - just that this conspiracy theory makes no sense to me at all. But it is now widely reported in the mainstream media. And there are many enthusiastic subscribers to it. We are Nigerians. And of course it is never our faults!
The greatest loser in the Chibok abduction affair is President Jonathan. The fact that his security officials were not even sure of the exact number of people abducted and had contradictory narratives of what really happened gave the impression that he is not effectively in charge of the country. More importantly the fact that heads did not roll to demonstrate the President’s rage at the way the matter was mishandled by those who ought to be in charge created the impression of a weak President. The shoddy handling of the Chibok abduction fed into the disappointment many felt, when, a day after the Nyanya bombing in April this year, the president went to Kano to smile, dance and campaign. I have no problem with the President travelling to Kano to keep to a pre-planned schedule to demonstrate that the terrorists must not be seen as winning. But to get into smiling and dancing when the mood of the nation demanded a solemn ambience was disappointing.
The kidnap of the Chibok girls and the
global attention it has generated may actually be a tipping point in the
country’s fight against terrorism. For far too long, the Boko Haram
challenge has thrived largely because of the deep distrust and thinly
veiled antagonisms that are embedded in the country’s fault lines.
Written by Jideofor Adibe
REF http://dailytrust.info/columns/thursday-columns/24101-now-that-the-americans-are-here-i
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