FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiThursday, May 8, 2014
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Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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CHIBOK GIRLS, SECURITY AGENCIES AND A CLUELESS GOVERNMENT

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t is no longer news that Goodluck Jonathan, the armed forces and the security agencies have no clue about the whereabouts and situation of the Chibok girls. More than 3 weeks after the girls were abducted none of them has any idea of the identity of the girls, their names and the number, yet they have been going on and about enjoying May Day parade, smiling broadly at political rallies and attending owanbe in Ibadan, New York where Ngozi came to attend a social event for making the list of 100 and at the Federal Ministry of Health where the health minister celebrated his 52nd birthday. That was until the whole world woke them up following international news coverage in the West, outrage and endless protests everywhere about the plight of the abducted girls, including London, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and several demonstrations in Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kano, Maiduguri, Calabar, Akure and many other Nigerian cities and towns. The deluge of criticisms and condemnations of the handling of the abduction saga has finally brought some semblance of seriousness into Jonathan and his military and intelligence chiefs, all of them forever used to enjoying the loot of office, growing fat on the wealth of the nation, and with a solid history of intimidating, harassing, humiliating, bashing, letter-bombing, waylaying and brutalizing, crushing, beating up, and arresting civilians during the heady and evil years of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. The Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the State Security Service (SSS) were agents of human and peoples' rights abuse for decades in Nigeria. They served the goons in power and sacrifice the people for the pleasure of the goons and dictators who stole power from the people. They have never been used to serving the people, the taxpayers, the very people at whose pleasure they were offered jobs with the duty to protect and preserve the nation.

How can we forget how the SSS, the DMI and the other uniformed agents of state willfully arrested journalists, writers, columnists, editors, reporters, university teachers, human rights campaigners, opinion shapers, lawyers, perceived opponents, and every other person who held contrary views in those terrible years? Where are the notorious pseudo-military/police men we often refer to as kill-and-go? Ah, kill-and-go, the dreaded trailer that leaves crushed bones, battered bodies, dead men, women and children and bloodied victims in their wake! Kill-and-go was (still is, a la Admiral Harry Arogundade, the power-drunk and citizen intimidator, who was quietly retired from the Nigeria Navy in 2011 and is now chairman of Forts and Shields and is said to be distributing bulletproof and protective wears in Nigeria) the monstrous hurricane that ruthlessly run down and mow down citizens with the slightest provocation, or merely following orders from the chief monster in Aso Rock, a Babangida or an idiotic, illiterate, and cretin named Sani Abacha. Why not throw them into the Sambisa forest for a change, along with the zombies? They all have a job to do and this is a very important job, and they are the tough cookies who can - supposedly - do this job. This is a good chance to let the tough and ruthless kill-and-go do their thing now that we have a good reason to deal with a group that threatens the stability of the nation. Those policemen who like to shoot and miss, kill and maim, and kick and crush civilians should be sent along as well.

How can we forget how men of the state security service and the DMI parcel-bombed Dele Giwa, how they drove leaders of human rights groups and journalists in J5 buses with no seats from Lagos to Abuja hoping to injure and/or kill them, how they were complicit in the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his Ogoni brothers, and their bloody hands in the murder and disappearance of Bagauda Kaltho, the brutes that shortened the lives of Beko Ransome Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Tai Solarin, Alao Aka-Bashorun, Comrade Ola Oni, Baba Omojola, Chima Ubani, and many others? We cannot forget anytime soon about how they detained, physically harassed, brutalized and paid nocturnal visits to the homes of the likes of Nosa Igiebor, Kunle Ajibade, Ben Charles Obi, Chima Ubani, Niran Malaolu, Moshood Fayemiwo, Tokunbo Fakeye, Jenkins Alumona, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, Soji Omotunde, Hamid Danlami, George Mbah, Paxton Idowu whose heavily pregnant wife was arrested in lieu of her husband, Dapo Olorunyomi whose one-year-old child and wife were arrested as proxies. They were the very same people who visited the homes and offices of writers, university teachers, editors, agitators for progress, and trade union leaders at will and forced these nationalists and professionals to abandon the comfort of their homes for the discomfort of safe-houses and vehicles.

But now "Overtake Don Overtake Overtake" and we all can see how useless the SSS, DMI and kill-and-go are; how impotent, lily-livered, cowardly, hopeless and incompetent they truly are, and how the state is absolutely insecure in their hands, hands that have been trained to humiliate, torment, harass and kill innocent citizens. These animals, as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is wont to call them, have no feelings for humans and no clue what to do in situations that are unrelated to citizens' bashing. So why not throw the DMI boys into the forest as well. I am sure they have heard about the exploits of the Navy SEALs Team Six in the United States and how the SEALs out the enemies of the United States and its people, and how they rescued Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Tristed from the hands of Somali pirates in the Somali town of Adow. This is a huge opportunity for the SSS and the DMI to prove that they are a force to be reckoned with and that they are capable and ready to defend the people, rather than intimidating and harassing journalists, reporters, editors, writers, citizens, and burning down media houses.

I am sure Tai Solarin, Gani, and Beko will be laughing their heads off now, along with Dele Giwa. Why not send parcel bombs to Boko Haram or a detachment of the DMI to arrest them right inside the Sambisa forest? Can anyone imagine the audacity of the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau shoving it in the face of the Nigerian government, the SSS and the DMI? "I abducted your girls. There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women," he boasted and snared at Jonathan and his military and security chiefs. Where is the fury and anger that the DMI and SSS used to feel towards Gani, Beko, Kongi, Giwa, Saro-Wiwa, Omojola, Ubani, The Guardian, Tell Magazine, The News, Campaign for Democracy (CD), Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), and writers? Where is the rage to kill and maim, and put away? Get that anger out and use it to do good for once, otherwise you are all useless, worthless, hopeless and mere losers. Get angry now and demand that you all be rushed immediately to the forest to retrieve our daughters. I hope their fat tummies and out-of-shape frames won't stand in the way. Too much beer and pepper soup and the lack of fitness due to irregular exercises may have pushed their stomach into near-delivery level of pregnancy, but the job still has to be done. Please load the DMI and SSS men into Hercules and/or fighter jets and drop them inside the Sambisa forest to go find our daughters.

Did you see Jonathan the other day welcoming Uhuru Kenyatta to Aso Rock with broad smile on his cheeks and delight on his face? In the company of his wife, he shared banters with Mr. Kenyatta though he has no information about the location of our daughters! I wonder what is there to smile about, but that is the kind of grabby and selfish leadership the one-time shoe-less boy of Otuoke is providing. Nearly four weeks after the abduction of our daughters, the future of our nation and leaders of tomorrow, the love of the lives of many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunties, friends and neighbours, talk has been the sole weapon of Goodluck Jonathan. But one fact has remained elusive, and that is whether Patience Jonathan has just learnt about the abduction of our daughters as it was just reported that she cried at a meeting she called over the kidnap matter just the other day, or is it that she has been crying since day one when the girls were abducted? May the Lord deliver us from a deceiver's tears, an after-thought wailer in her own dystopian world. She must have cried enough buckets to fill Aso Rock water works by now, the elekun eke. Please lock your tear-tap and return to your familiar terrain and endless junket, but let Goodluck the husband keep quiet and stop talking for once; end your speech-making today and get the SSS, DMI, kill-and-go and soldiers into the Sambisa forest to get our daughters back.

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