As unfortunate as the Chibok Girls’ abduction of April 14, 2014, might have been, it has a lesson. The abduction has taken the blame-game over the raging insurgency one notch up. Rather than unite us through wise counsels from elders, mature judgment from patriots and citizens alike on the way forward from this wildfire, the abduction has opened new battle flanks. In the abduction, we have seen divisive rhetoric from respected leaders and elders dangerously playing into the hands of the terrorists. We have seen over exaggeration of the threat posed by Boko Haram. We have seen conscious and unconscious attempts by politicians and gullible citizens alike to heighten our nation’s agony.
To be sure, terrorism is an English word. It can beat the best of government and balkanize it. Despite her sophisticated security networks, it took America by surprise and struck her real bad on September 11, 2001 when the magnificent Twin Towers was forced to kiss the ground. The attack threw America and the entire world into great mourning. The reaction and resolve of the leadership and the people was to remain vigilant in the face of the threat posed by unknown enemies. There was no blame-fixing, no vilification of the presidency. As soon as it happened, airports tightened security and embassies braced up. That vigilance has been sustained till date.
The greatest danger is that we have failed to brace up for the nature of threat we are dealing with. What we witnessed in the abduction is not an aberrant act. It is not a product of particular regime’s incapability for the last four years. Senseless as the abduction may be, it is not without sense for its organizers. It was done according to their plan. What Nigeria is confronting is an evil ideology. It is a global struggle and it is a battle of ideas, hearts and minds, both within Islam and outside it. This is the battle that must be won, a battle not just about the terrorist methods but their views. Not just their barbaric acts, but their barbaric ideas. Not only what they do but what they think and the thinking that they can impose it on others.
Let Nigerians not kid themselves. Terrorism is not a small war of the presidency. In the last 14 years, it has affected more than 32 countries and none has a beautiful story to tell. Al-Qaeda and its associates have killed thousands of people across the world. They have networks virtually in every major country as well as thousands of members. They are well financed. They are sophisticated in their propaganda and recruit however and whoever they can.
It is not blame but the power of argument, debate, true religious faith and true legitimate politics that will defeat this threat. It is not protest. Protests are typical of Nigeria where nobody accepts responsibility for any failure.
The Chibok drama is a symptom of our collective failure to act at appropriate time. If the recent protests-Bring Back Our Girls- stalling economic activities across the country were done years back, Boko Haram would not have risen. When Muslims started killing Christians in their churches, people kept mute deluding it was Christians’ headache. By that dignified silence, Islam implicitly affirmed that killing infidels was a divine mandate. When many Igbo people and their commercial interests were burnt, there were no protests. If we had protested, Islam would not have developed the stamina to breed extremists.
When Boko Haram made its debut, churches were bombed, worshippers were roasted along with their Bibles, travellers were waylaid and burnt. Nigerians went about their normal duties. Our soldiers have been dying trying to bring peace but it never touched us to take to the street. We never saw Wole Soyinka leading a protest. We never heard Buhari calling on all to join hands to stop the killings. Nyako never demonstrated his writing skill. That collective silence gave a boost to those zealots of twisted version of Islam to rage like wild fire which takes any direction, any time, any where, anyhow.
The Chibok Girls’ abduction is a mirror where every Nigerian ought to see the reflection of himself and recognize the gravity of their responsibility. Since the abduction, attention has turned to what government has done or failed to do. We have largely ignored our responsibility in the incident that made the abduction not just possible but inevitable. The events that led to the Chibok Girls’ abduction did not happen in a day. It is a result of series of actions and inactions.
In the historical call for action, we realize that keeping silence when we ought to act is the best way to give green light for the reign of evil. Our neglect re-echoes a historical failure to act which led to the World’s greatest holocaust. “When the Germans killed the Jews, we watched in silence because we were not Jews. When they murdered the Blacks we were still unconcerned because we were not Black. When they massacred the Asians we kept mute because we were not one of them. Then we saw the marauding murderers coming and we realized they were coming for us and we were not safe. That was when we knew that if we had collectively protested the killings of the Jews, the murder of the Blacks and the massacres of the Asians, we would all have been safe.”
It takes one to initiate general applause. In an incident involving many agencies, institutions, persons, management, who have regular monthly take-home from tax payers’ monies, the whole blame of not protecting the Chibok Girls has been directed only to the presidency. Nobody remembers the role of the security agencies. Nobody has staged a protest demanding immediate lynching of the GOC that was alleged to have sold our valiant soldiers who made incursion to bring them back to the enemies’ line. Nobody has called for the sack, of any military head in the state or national level whom many had suspected to have link with them. Not many have blamed the chief security officer of that state; those who indicted him were shunned on the pretence that the state is under emergency role. Nobody has insisted that the school management should be held for their conspiracy. Nobody has even blamed the community for not raising alarm about terrorists’ activities going on in the evil forests there. The whole attention has turned to the presidency.
The worst is that nobody has come up with the best way to secure the release of the girls. Some will be satisfied only when the president himself takes Ak47 to confront the insurgents himself. When the military was doing its fine job, it was accused of genocide. When government relied on its army to unravel the mystery, the military was accused of being incapable and already infiltrated. When government sought help of the foreign military intelligence experts, people said that it was a slap on Nigeria’ greatness; we shouldn’t have allowed America into the country. Boko Haram proposed prisoners swap with their members in detention, people kicked against government move to succumb. Which way Nigerians? Are we to wait for Obasanjo’s peace talk or rely on the respected journalist Ahmad Salkida convincing his friend Abubakar Shekau?
What is obvious is that Nigeria has got to lick her wounds to save the day. It is either we forget those girls or agree to prisoners-for-hostages swap being offered by the sect to secure the girls’ release. Military option will not yield the desired reward. The whole issue is that with the girls around them, if you hit the terrorists, they will hit back at the girls. Agreeing on the deal will not make us lose anything. Do we lose anything releasing those liabilities being held behind bars when government has refused to name the sponsors of Boko Haram? What are those family members of the insurgents doing in the prisons when we have refused to try them? Do they pose more threat than those infiltrate in the security? No way! It pays to agree to the deal and come back later to guard against conditions that made the abduction possible, thrash the insurgents and take Nigeria back from their grip. The spirit of the moment calls for unity in defence of our common values, not criticism.
