FEATURE ARTICLE

Temple Chima UbochiFriday, March 23, 2018
[email protected]
Bonn, Germany

ANALOG NIGERIA IN A DIGITAL AGE (6)

Continued from Part 5

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity (Robert A. Heinlein) The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits (Albert Einstein) The government is so out of control. It is so bloated and infested with fraud and deceit and corruption and abuse of power (Ted Nugent)

The release of the Dapchi School Girls

uhari's government is morally bankrupt, stupidly corrupt, senselessly deceitful, crassly dangerous, and is leading Nigeria down the road to perdition. This government is a bottomless pit of lowlifes. This government is found wanting in such a way that honor, integrity, trust, compassion, empathy have been thrown to the dogs. How can a government arrange the abduction of the Dapchi School Girls, also arranged their release, and expect the world to clap for them? This government said that the girls were released through back channel efforts and negotiations, but the truth is that the government negotiated with itself, paid itself ransom, and released the girls it helped in kidnapping. The APC claims that it has done what Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP couldn't do when the Chibok Girls were abducted. Of course, Jonathan and PDP didn't plan the kidnapping and releasing of the Chibok girls, but the APC planned the kidnapping and releasing of the Dapchi girls, infact, some APC members and some northern leaders, such as Buhari, organized the abduction of the Chibok girls, and also made their rescue impossible for their political gain.

Few days before the abduction of the Dapchi girls, the Army left the town, and all roadblocks and checkpoints were dismantled, making it easier for the terrorists to take the girls unchallenged; and now, the girls were brought back to the town by the same terrorists who also encountered no roadblocks, checkpoints or challenge. It means that this government is part of it all. Something is wrong! Even a Nollywood movie can't be better than that.

How can the girls pack their bags before their abduction as if they were going on a holiday, and they were released with full bags as if they were coming from shopping? There was no sign of desperation here. This must have been stage-managed despite the government's denial.

https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/976442412750000128

My premonition didn't miss! Previously, even in this serial, I've maintained that Buhari is one of the patrons of Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. In Part 3 of this article, I wrote: "The kidnapping of the Chibok Girls was a calculated attempt by the northern leaders to depict Goodluck Jonathan as a weak leader, thereby rubbishing his personal image and public role, and it worked perfectly well for them, and must have worked against Jonathan's re-election. Buhari was privy to the Chibok Girls' saga, and he knows what has happened to the Dapchi Girls, as he plans to use the sad incident for his re-election. Seeing that he has lost, long time ago, that "goodwill" that propelled him to power in 2015, and knowing that his re-election bid is in jeopardy, he will try to use this abduction to assert his relevance. Days, weeks and months ahead - leading to 2019, the Dapchi Girls would be "rescued", and that will burnish or promote his candidacy for re-election. The point is that he knows what happened to the girls - just as he knew what happened to the Chibok Girls - he knows where they are. And he will use their release for a cheap political bargain as the election draws nearer - to boost his chance that is sagging every day. And then his foot soldiers will start claiming that unlike Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari has shown strong leadership, and "Sai Baba" will be renting the air once more".

That's exactly what has happened now. Amnesty International said, on Tuesday, March 20, that Security officials in Nigeria failed to act after being alerted that Boko Haram militants were on their way to a town where they eventually kidnapped 110 schoolgirls. Then, just a day after Amnesty International indicted the Nigerian security forces for negligence in the abduction of the Dapchi Girls, Boko Haram brought back nearly all of the 110 girls they had kidnapped from the school, dropping them off in the middle of the night, Wednesday, March 21, with a warning to their parents: "Don't ever put your daughters in school again".

This confirms what I've been saying that Buhari and Boko Haram are linked somehow. Buhari wanted Boko Haram to keep the girls longer for the exigencies of politics later, but the constant criticism of how his government and security forces handled the intelligence prior to the kidnapping, must have forced him to tell Boko Haram to release the girls. Buhari can't deny knowing what Boko Haram is doing; remember that during Goodluck Jonathan's time, the sect named him as their chief negotiator, but he rejected the role, because he wanted Goodluck Jonathan to fail, and might have helped in scuttling every other effort made for the release of the Chibok Girls through negotiations.

Buhari's government, through his Information minister, said that "The girls were released "through back-channel efforts and with the help of some friends of the country, and it was unconditional. No money changed hands. They only had one condition - that they will return them to where they took them. So in the early hours of today, they did return the girls and most of them went to their parents".

Only the gullible can believe what this government is saying. If the government means what it has said, why hasn't it used the same method to secure the release of the remaining Chibok girls? Of course, the Buhari's government paid a ransom and must have made a prisoner swap in exchange for the girls' freedom despite its denial. One must have noticed that many Boko Haram members, in custody, are being released nowadays, the government is also granting the killers amnesty with reckless abandon, and they will end up going back into the wild to continue their heinous activities. The lax attitude of this government is incomparable!

You will recollect that more than a week ago, Buhari claimed that he handled Dapchi kidnapping better than Goodluck Jonathan handled the Chibok abduction. Buhari accused Goodluck Jonathan of looking the other way when the Chibok Girls were abducted but didn't tell us that he might have been one of the northern elite who knew about the kidnapping, and made it impossible for the girls to be rescued. The Jonathan camp reminded Nigerians that one of the people who undermined the then administration's anti-terror war was Muhammadu Buhari who on June 3, 2013, said the "military offensive against Boko Haram is anti-North". The Jonathan's camp added that "Again, the President was not right when he said his administration "rescued" 100 Chibok girls. The Chibok girls were not rescued. As a matter of fact, they were released by Boko Haram after the alleged payment of huge ransoms and freedom of captured Boko Haram commanders by the Buhari administration.

Jonathan's camp concluded that "Only two weeks ago, Shuaibu Moni, one of the Boko Haram commanders released by the Buhari administration went back to Sambisa Forest and released a video threatening Nigeria. Who knows whether it was money allegedly paid as ransom to Boko Haram or individuals freed by the government that were used to facilitate the kidnap of the Dapchi girls and the recent killings of United Nations staff in Rann? Finally, can President Buhari, who claims to have defeated Boko Haram, tell the world how many people are killed daily by Boko Haram under his regime as compared to the previous regime? In the first 10 weeks of 2018, Boko Haram killed 519 people in the Northeast".

The point is that this government knew that Boko Haram will be dropping the girls off but did nothing to accost them even on their way out of the town. The terrorists rolled into the town, in a convoy of about 9 vehicles, and also rolled out unchallenged, and the government is telling us that it was part of the negotiation. The terrorists even received a "heroic" welcome as they dropped off the girls, and stayed for about an hour preaching to the girls and their parents about staying away from school henceforth. Verily, terrorists are ruling Nigeria. Who would be surprised if the terrorists continue abducting school girls, men, women and children in future, as they now have the license to do anything they want and get away with it? This government is financing and emboldening terrorism, and one day terrorists would ride roughshod over all parts of Nigeria. Someone pointed out that the money Boko Haram received for the release of the Dapchi girls will buy them enough and sophisticated weapons for five years. To say that this government is a big failure is even an understatement.

The Premium Times reports that the "father of Aisha Adamu, one of the Dapchi schoolgirls who lost their lives in Boko Haram captivity, has questioned the circumstances that surrounded the abduction and subsequent release of the girls by Boko Haram. Jumbam, who is currently mourning his 16-year-old daughter, said that rather than the Nigerian soldiers combating the insurgents after they came back to drop the girls, the soldiers simply ' "watched with folded arms while the insurgents left triumphantly". While speaking in tears amidst a large crowd of mourners and sympathisers that throng his family home in Jumbam, the bereaved father said he has lost faith in the Nigerian government".

EJ Alozie-Nwagboso posted: "A technically defeated, severely battered Boko Haram getting a HEROIC welcome today as KIDNAPPED girls were returned after getting paid. Madness!

This is a money making gang. Remember PMB's $1bn BH funds? This government should end today! We are doomed"

One thing I noticed is that this government behaves like a "goat breast" that gives its milk only when pushed by its kid. Amnesty International criticized the Nigerian military for failing to act when informed of an impending abduction of the Dapchi girls, and then a day later, the Dapchi girls were released. Buhari accused Goodluck Jonathan of not acting swiftly when the Chibok girls were abducted, but Jonathan's camp disputed that then revealing to the world that many of our police personnel have been turned into handbag carriers for the wives of politicians and big men. And then, a few days later, the Inspector general of Police withdrew all the police personnel attached to individuals and private businesses. Although the IGP, for reasons not explained, has halted his order withdrawing police orderlies from VIPs, politicians and private businesses. The SR reports that a new date has been set for the order to be carried out; the IGP announced 20th of April as when police deployed to guard private individuals would be withdrawn.

Be that as it may; if Jonathan's camp didn't bring this issue out in the open, the police would have continued as usual, guarding individuals in their homes rather than providing security for all. Only in an analog country like Nigeria can such thing happen.

Goodluck Jonathan's camp said that Chief Mike Okiro, the head of the Police Service Commission, revealed that under President Muhammadu Buhari, 150,000 policemen are guarding 'big men' instead of performing core police duties. President Buhari's son, Yusuf, alone had more guards guarding him than the guards attached to Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, at the time of the kidnapping, yet the President said he handled Dapchi better than Jonathan handled Chibok. Serious President, knowing how vulnerable the Northeast is would have sent these 150,000 policemen to guard schools in the Northeast rather than send them out to guard APC big shots all over the country.

I find this police topic interesting and would want to expand it. Paraphrasing Mr. Ndagi, the police is the principal law enforcement agency in every country, and it has the statutory responsibility of protecting lives and property, but not in Nigeria. The Nigeria Police has a numerical strength of about 370,000, and when you divide that with the estimated Nigeria's population, you have then one police personnel to about 500 Nigerians. That is shocking! The United Nation's recommended, at least, 1:400 police-to-person ratio. The Nigeria Police is poorly equipped, poorly funded, poorly trained, poorly loved, and is seen as a dumping ground for the ne'er-do-well in the society.

Despite the fact that the police in Nigeria is understaffed, 150, 000 of them are orderlies to powerful individuals, then, how many of them are there to carry out the police constitutional duties? How can a pick-up load of policemen serve as security personnel to a powerful individual or his wife when there is a shortage of police personnel? Have you noticed how some of our police personnel are being the humiliated by turning them into handbag or umbrella carriers for politicians' wives or girlfriends? Only in an analog country like Nigeria can such thing happen.

This police issue leads me to the issue of what our politicians are earning. How can less than 2% of the Nigerian population (politicians and senior government officials) be taking 75% of the nation's wealth while the remaining 25% is used for workers' salaries and capital expenditures? This can only happen in an analog country like Nigeria. I will touch on Senator Sani's revelation, regarding what each senator earns, in a subsequent part of this article.

No matter how this government made the release of the Dapchi girls possible, it should also do the same, as swiftly as possible, to secure the release of the remaining Chibok girls. Suffice it to say that Buhari and Boko Haram are the same, so let him also order the release of the remaining Chibok Girls.

Reno Omokri, a spokesman for former president Goodluck Jonathan wrote: "I commend the Buhari administration for the release of the #DapchiGirls through "back channels". I welcome the assurances that no ransom was paid. I am saddened at the news that some of the girls died and one still remains in captivity because she is a Christian. I urge the Buhari administration to do all it can through its "back channels' to convince Boko Haram to release Liah Sheribu, the Christian girl that they continue to hold, allegedly because she refuses to abandon her Christian faith for Islam. I urge no one to politicize her situation?, as this may jeopardize her life. Finally, I urge the Buhari government to use their close relations to Boko Haram, which the Minister of Defense described as 'back channels' to secure the release of the remaining #ChibokGirls".

Did Boko Haram fly the girls before using vehicles to drop them off in Dapchi?

https://theworldnews.net/ng-news/breaking-we-were-flown-home-by-boko-haram-terrorists-in-planes-dapchi-girls-say

To be continued!

TIT BITS

BBC shows Soldiers fighting Boko Haram were asked to retreat when they almost captured Shekau

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaAyXqaS7VI

Listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ST6ZRbhGiA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIksbyVq5jA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPgf2meEX1w

THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!

Continued from Part 5

IMAGES IN THE NEWS