During the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the All Progressives Congress, which was the main opposition at the time, did not spare the President over the kidnap of Chibok schoolgirls. But with the Dapchi schoolgirls’ saga, the APC-led Federal Government has been put in a similar situation. GBENRO ADEOYE writes
For many reasons, the February 2018 abduction of schoolchildren from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State by Boko Haram insurgents was a poignant reminder of a similar incident that occurred four years ago in Chibok, Borno State.
And indeed, many Nigerians have drawn parallels between the two incidents; even though, most of the Dapchi schoolchildren have been reunited with their parents while many of the Chibok schoolgirls have yet to be released by their abductors.
The latest report on the abduction of school pupils in Dapchi is that out of 113 pupils that were kidnapped, 107 were released while the fate of others is still uncertain. Although, there have been reports that five out of the remaining six pupils had died, the Federal Government has yet to confirm it.
On the other hand, over 100 Chibok schoolgirls have yet to be recovered from the 276 pupils that were reportedly abducted by insurgents on the night of April 14, 2014. So, comparing the two incidents, Nigerians have more reason to smile about the latter than the former considering the number of schoolchildren recovered and the time they spent in captivity before regaining their freedom.
But with both incidents having occurred a year to the general elections, there have been strong arguments that the situations surrounding the events are tinged with political undertones.
For instance, many Nigerians have been divided over whether the Federal Government has been completely honest with the people on the kidnapped Dapchi school pupils’ saga and some of them have been vocal in their opinions. Indeed, the issue has been a subject of public discourse online, on social media or otherwise.
One of the strongest skeptics that have questioned whether the Federal Government and the military have been honest with Nigerians over the matter is the Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, who described the release of the Dapchi school pupils as a “drama scripted by the government and its agents to swindle Nigerians.”
Similarly, a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, had also accused the Federal Government of lying to Nigerians about the Dapchi school pupils, in a statement, saying, “So many questions need to be answered. For example how do you explain the ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags that the girls were carrying on their return? Did they go shopping in Sambisa Forest? Or is it that when they abducted them, they gave them time to pack all their clothes and allowed them to bring them back when freed?”
He accused the government of lying that it did not pay any ransom to Boko Haram to secure the release of the school pupils, saying, “Whichever way you look at it and whatever you believe, there can be little doubt that a terrible precedent has now been set and we can expect many more Boko Haram abductions in the next few months after which money will change hands again and the girls, as long as they are Muslims, will be released and returned.
“This is especially so because the 2019 elections are approaching and the government needs to raise funds to build up its war chest.”
The Peoples Democratic Party also described the release of the kidnapped Dapchi pupils by Boko Haram insurgents as a scam on its Twitter page, where it said, “We condemn the @APCNigeria (All Progressives Congress) and certain officials in the @NPresidency for staging the abduction of the schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State, for political purposes. It is wicked, callous and tormenting to use innocent schoolgirls as pawns.
“Nigerians know that the main aim of this devilish act was to delude the public, set the stage for an orchestrated rescue, create a heroic myth and false sense of achievement around the @APCNigeria administration and serve as a spur for @MBuhari’s declaration to contest in 2019.”
The North Central chapter of the PDP, which toed the path, accused the APC-led administration of the Federal Government of playing on the intelligence of Nigerians for political reasons.
Immediately after the pupils’ release, the party’s North Central Zonal Chairman, Theophilus Dakar Shan, had said, “Two weeks ago, the APC-led Federal Government told Nigerians that the abducted school girls in Dapchi would be released in two weeks and today we wake up to realise that the school girls were released. It is worrisome and sends a bad signal that the government has a hand in it.”
But while the allegations and arguments were going on, online and otherwise, President Muhammadu Buhari, while receiving the freed pupils, vowed to deal with any persons or groups attempting to trivialise or politicise security issues for politically motivated ends, saying that security agencies would not hesitate to deal with such characters.
“May I also warn against those elements who have chosen to make a political fortune of our citizens’ misfortune.
“Government would not tolerate any attempt by any person or group to trivialise or politicise security issues for politically motivated ends.
“Accordingly, security agencies would not hesitate to decisively deal with such unscrupulous characters,” he had said.
It was not clear if the President was referring to the like of the PDP, Fayose, Fani-Kayode and many others who had been critical of the Federal Government over the Dapchi pupils’ abduction saga, but his threat was unambiguous. And if anyone was still in doubt about the true meaning of the President’s message, perhaps, the statement by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Sunday would have answered such questions.
Mohammed criticised the PDP for allegedly turning the national tragedy into a platform for partisan politics, saying: “A terror attack on any country is an attack on all countries. Perhaps we should ask the PDP what, indeed, the party knows about the abduction of the Dapchi girls, going by its statement that their abduction and release were stage-managed. The party made itself a laughing stock within and outside Nigeria with that statement.”
“What called for non-partisan celebrations was rather thoughtlessly turned into politics, bad, despicable politics that has no place in any democracy. At times of national tragedies, countries unite. This is the norm everywhere.”
Mohammed also reiterated the President’s threat that the government would deal with anyone who politicised the matter.
But some political analysts have described the Federal Government’s threats as wrong and an attempt to trample on people’s right to freedom of expression. They noted that the APC and Mohammed, who is the party’s former National Publicity Secretary, probably did worse when they were in the opposition and that despite that, they were not gagged by the then administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
For instance, about a month after the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, the APC, in a statement by its then spokesperson, (Lai) Mohammed, said President Jonathan’s aborted trip to Chibok showed that he did not understand the demands of his office.
“A President and commander-in-chief who is afraid to visit any part of his country has betrayed the very people who voted him into office. In the case of Chibok, he has shown that the residents of the town should not expect to be seen as compatriots by their own President; hence they are on their own.
“This definitely explains why, increasingly, Nigerians are resorting to self help, why ordinary citizens are taking up cudgels, machetes and dane guns to battle Boko Haram. It is nothing but the clearest indication of state failure and presidential ineffectiveness,” the party had said.
Also in September 2014, Mohammed told the British Parliament that the then President Jonathan and Nigeria’s ruling PDP were manipulating the Boko Haram crisis to return the President to power in 2015 in a paper presented to a sub-committee of the House of Commons titled, ‘Challenges of Insecurity in Nigeria and Boko Haram Insurgency’.
In another statement, the APC, through Mohammed, warned the then President Jonathan, against using the abducted Chibok schoolgirls as ‘pawns on his political chessboard.’
The opposition party urged him to release the schoolgirls who had been abducted six months earlier, if indeed he knew their whereabouts.
“Mr. President, tongues are wagging that you know where the girls are and that you want them to be released only when it will give you the maximum political advantage. We don’t know if this is true or not, but if it is, please release the girls now.
“It is cruel and unconscionable for anyone to use these girls as pawns on a political chess board. They have now been in captivity for over six full months. Please end the agony of the girls’ parents and indeed of all Nigerians,” it had said.
But according to a lawyer and public affairs analyst, Mr. Liborous Oshoma, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
“If you sewed hatred or rode on the back of hatred to get to office, you have set precedence, so you shouldn’t expect to get to office and enjoy tranquility. The brand of politics we witnessed ahead of 2015 elections had never been witnessed before. Words that were indecorous were used in the process of the campaign, names were called and government officials were abused and called incompetent, clueless, and buffoon.
“Today, those in the opposition at that time are now in government. So by a stroke of fate, they are also not doing well in government and are faced with the kind of criticisms that they gave while in opposition,” he said.
Dismissing the threats made by the Federal Government, Oshoma said Nigerians have the right to criticise and ask questions from their government.
He said, “We practise a democracy that is about competition whereby when there is a government in power, there is a lot of opposition. And the essence of having opposition is to assess the activities of the government to see how it can be done better. So people can say the whole Dapchi episode is raising more questions than answers and it was a charade.
“People have the right to question the security lapses or crisis in the region against the backdrop of the funds that government has consistently budgeted for insecurity. Yes, we say the girls have been released but even that is raising more questions. Even the information from the government has been conflicting.
“Government said it had defeated Boko Haram technically, and then it said it had a ceasefire arrangement with the group. All of these are raising questions so you don’t expect people to just keep quiet and the essence of democratic governance is to interrogate government activities.
“So the onus is on the government to prove to the people and convince them that indeed, they mean well and are sincere. Otherwise, you will create doubts in the minds of people and when you do that, you do not blame them when they begin to express those doubts.
“In constitutional democracy, people have the right to question their government and the strength of the people is the power to question and interrogate every government activity. It is like employing a man and then he says you don’t have the right to question his activities. We employed those in government and so they cannot tell us that we don’t have a right to question their activities. We do have the right to question every of their activities.”
Another lawyer and social commentator, Mr. Yemi Adetoyinbo, said the APC-led Federal Government lacked the moral to accuse anyone of politicising insecurity in the country as the party itself benefited from politicising the Chibok schoolgirls’ saga.
“The APC explored it (Chibok schoolgirls’ saga) and used every opportunity it had to run the administration of former President Jonathan down and it actually led to the victory of the APC in the presidential election in 2015.
“So the scenario is repeating itself with the Dapchi girls now that the APC is in power. For the President and Lai Mohammed to have condemned anybody who dares to play politics with the abduction and release of the Dapchi schoolgirls is a demonstration of the present administration’s hatred for free speech and freedom of expression.
“Lai Mohammed himself made use of the opportunities he had during Jonathan’s administration as his party won the presidential election. So the same Mohammed cannot be dancing around and negating the same thing that promoted him to the position of Minister of Information.
“The effort of the government to curtail people from making allegations is condemnable. People should not be kowtowed to support whatever the President, the APC or the administration wants. People are free to hold divergent opinions as the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees it,” he said.
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