Though the abducted girls of Girls’ Secondary School, Chikbo,
Borno State, are yet to regain their freedom, there are already some
useful lessons to be learnt by every Nigerian person organization from
the dreadful and unfortunate incident. What started like a tale from
moonlight on the night of April 14, 2014 has now snowballed into a huge
international, news-making affair- attracting personalities from across
the world to roundly condemn it.Never in the history of our country has an incident attracted as much umbrage and outrage as the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls. And the reason is obvious – the integrity of Nigeria and lives of these young and impressionable girls are at stake. The barrage of criticisms of the abduction began when the President of the United States, Barack Obama, offered to send security personnel to assist Nigeria in facilitating the release of the girls. As if woken from their slumber other world leaders responded with equal precision, angst and solidarity.
Today there appears some light at the end of the tunnel. I lay claim to this assertion for two reasons. First, sufficient awareness has been created about the sad incident, causing the whole world to stand up to condemn it and offer assistance to get the girls released. Second, the recent video released on Monday by the AFP on the abducted girls showed, at least, they are still alive. According to the analysis of the video by AFP the girls had been converted to Islam as they were seen reciting some verses from the Koran and making some declarations about their new ‘religious’ belief.
Having given this little background, it is then important at this juncture to ask: How did we get into this mess and how is it going to affect the future of Nigeria in the eyes of the world? I have asked these questions in relation to the alleged claim by Amnesty International that Nigeria’s Military were sufficiently aware of the threat by Boko Haram to attack Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok and still did nothing to stop it. Though I am still in quandary why the Military, if aware of the plans of the dreaded sect to attack the school, would keep quiet. This is totally strange. If it is the same military I know: it would not fold its arms and watch innocent schoolgirls attacked. Have we forgotten that the main reason for drafting troops to the three states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa is to restore law and order and protect lives and properties? Again, is anybody in doubt that the Military have lost quite a number of their own personnel since the operations started? So, what do they stand to gain by choosing to allow the people they were sent to protect attacked?
To me, the whole thing is steeped in complexity, because of some revealing facts that have emerged since the allegation was made by Amnesty. Probably, Amnesty International is mixing up the docile and helpless people of the affected communities with the military. I reliably learnt that some local people in Chibok got wind of the impending attack, but were too terrified to inform the security agencies. The same situation might have obtained in other communities where Boko Haram had carried out similar attacks.
One indubitable fact remains: the attack was totally unexpected. It caught everybody unawares. The timing made it almost impossible for anybody to do anything to forestall it. What reasonable thing could anybody have done in four hours to prevent the sect from unleashing the terror on the innocent and hapless girls? Indeed, the attack was like a bomb-trap waiting for somebody to step on it to explode. This is where our security agents have one useful lesson to learn: they should be at the alert at all times – whether in times of peace or war.
I had imagined that the attack would not have succeeded if security had been mounted at every school in the north! Is this not wishful thinking? It would have been beautiful to see this happen, but do we (as a nation) have the capacity for it? I can bet you: all the soldiers in Nigeria at present will not be enough to police all the schools in the north. What is the ratio of one soldier to a percentage of the population of Nigeria? Is it one soldier to every 1000 persons or more or less? Let us assume we have one million soldiers. This gives us one soldier to every 200 persons, i.e. assuming Nigeria’s population is 200 million. Can one soldier protect 200 persons within a demographic area in Nigeria given the peculiarity of our social environment? If we can tell one another the truth: the figure is grossly inadequate.
Looking at the operational style of Boko Haram, even 100 soldiers would not have been adequate to ward off the attack on Chibok. The complex terrain of Chibok would have made it foolhardy for any security agent to prevent the invaders in such a short time. This is where intelligence gathering comes to play. It is always better and more commonsensical to nip an attack in the bud than allow it to occur and then repel it.
As I wrote in this column two weeks ago, attacking children, women, the disabled and the aged is a heinous crime against the United Nations’ Conventions on Wars and Conflicts. If I were Boko Haram Commanders I would have advised against the abduction of the girls, because of its capacity to work permanently against the group. I recall giving the sect a benefit of the doubt in the article in question when I tried to call for dialogue between it and the government. By the latest attack the sect has convinced the whole world it is not ready for amicable settlement of whatever must have led to their actions.
The United Nations has already threatened to drag the leaders of the sect to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. To me, the threat by the UN will only make sense if those concerned are alive to face justice. The way things are going there is nothing to show members of Boko Haram have any regard for the life of others or theirs. All they want is to achieve their preposterous goals and set this nation on the precipice.
If we want to drag anybody to the ICJ we must first ensure the person is alive. Will UN drag dead persons to court? Who will bear witness against them if all their victims are killed in attacks? This is one worry I have always had about the threat of going to ICJ. What needed to be done is seek peace first, take adequate measures to protect lives and properties in the affected states, and then sensitize the people sufficiently about how to protect themselves in the event of a sudden attack.
What I feel about the people of Chibok and, indeed, the entire north is they do not deserve what is coming to them at this time. It is painful and heart-rending that the once-peaceful north has been turned into a theatre of absurdities. I recall with nostalgia my days in Maiduguri, when life was safe and pleasurable. I never fathomed that such a beautiful place would one day turn into a national killing-field. Jesus wept! I spent four years at the University of Maiduguri and a few more years after as a businessman, but never did I witness madness of this magnitude. The whole thing is pissing me off.
Even the world has a lesson to learn here: it should not wait until the 11th Hour before offering assistance to any nation in distress. In the case of the incessant attacks in the north, the whole world waited for too long before intervening. We have on record that over 3000 persons have been killed so far since the attacks started. What will happen to those kind and beautiful souls wasted in the various operations carried out by both Boko Haram and the security agencies before the offer of assistance? Nobody will convince me innocent civilians have not been killed in large numbers in those operations.
Terrorism thrives across the globe, because the leaders of the world have chosen not to cooperate with one another in tackling it. After all, the terrorists do not operate in isolation of the environment in which they reside. In fact, many of them are our fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, mothers, aunties, nieces and nephews. So, they succeed because all of us have decided not to speak up for lack of courage or fear of been found out and killed. Though some of these fears and apprehensions are justified, we can still do something quietly to protect ourselves. We can convince these rebellious relations not to continue in their evil ways, but to repent and embrace dialogue.
Book Haram will undoubtedly attract more respect and sympathy if it stops wasting innocent lives and accepts the offer of dialogue. It is possible they no longer have any value for their lives – nonetheless – they should bear in mind their lives belong to their Maker, not them.
REF http://leadership.ng/blogposts/371434/bitter-lessons-chibok
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