Life in the Jungle -By Sesugh Akume

Cameron was right. Jonathan was wrong, and he lied. It is true that when 276 schoolgirls were abducted in their school, Government Secondary School, Chibok, on 14 April 2014, Goodluck Jonathan dilly-dallied, he doubted the report, he was noncommittal, he did not take responsibility for it, he hoped for the news to die with time whilst allowing people’s children to be taken away by terrorists. Even when help was offered he was reluctant to take it. Those who called on him and his regime to take prompt action were characterised as the enemy and hounded. These are undeniable facts. Nothing David Cameron, the British prime minister at the time said is new.

What Jonathan said in response is not supported by evidence, and nobody suppressed any information. His first personal response to such an unprecedented tragedy came close to 3 weeks later, after intense pressure across Nigeria and around the world, including from Cameron himself, US First Lady Michelle Obama, and others. At what time therefore, did Jonathan write to the UK to assist with the rescue? 

His regime’s response was full of flip flops and outright lies. All of these are documented in #BringBackOurGirls’ ‘Chronicle of false narratives and inconsistencies over the rescue of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls by the Nigerian government’, with citations of verified and verifiable media reports of the day (available online). His regime even said repeatedly that they knew where the girls were and that they would soon be returned. Today is 2010 days of their abduction and captivity for 112 of them.

Jonathan made an error in judgement. He is best served reflecting on the incidence soberly with the benefit of hindsight and admitting error where it occurred. But I’m sure he doesn’t have time for that, possibly doesn’t have the capacity to. Before this latest response, he had told the BBC that he didn’t expect to be held responsible for the abduction as president, rather Boko Haram should have, as he couldn’t be expected to go to the battlefield terrorists himself. How does this even add up? He was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He swore to uphold the Constitution which says the security and welfare of Nigerians shall be the primary duty of government. With this mindset that he was the victim not to be held accountable doesn’t it explain his inaction his nonchalance then? 
His other excuse and ad hominem attack on Cameron is that he was denied military equipment for the  counterinsurgency effort because he had signed the anti-gay law. The anti-gay law in Nigeria was signed early 2014. When did he realise that there was an insurgency and his military was under-equipped? After the law was signed? 

Nigeria has not been blessed with leaders who understand the core issues, who go ahead to address them. They are lazy, mentally especially, they rely on gossip to direct state policy. This same idle talk was what Muhammadu Buhari told US President Barack Obama when he met him in the White House on July 2015. Buhari even asserted that the US was aiding Boko Haram by refusing to sell attack helicopters to Nigeria, and that was why Boko Haram was yet to be defeated. Is it that simple? Would having military helicopters and other military equipment alone defeat the terrorists? And did the US refuse to sell to Nigeria? If the US refused, is it only the US that manufactures and sells military hardware? Clearly, he didn’t know what he was saying.

It is not true that the UK, US, and others victimised Nigeria or anybody for the reasons given, nor is our military performing poorly for lack of armaments. In the first place, when the UK, US, Israel, and other countries of the world came over to help when Jonathan finally assented to their coming, they were frustrated and had to leave.

The US for instance, before now, had no direct military cooperation with Nigeria because the Leahy Law bars her from doing so. The US is not a Banana Republic run by the caprices of men (like a certain country I know) but by law and institutions. This is what both Jonathan and Buhari did not understand. But this was one of the core issues to be addressed which they missed.

Days after Buhari met with Obama, a bipartisan delegation of 4 US Congress members in Nigeria: Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Frederica Wilson (D-Florida), Blake Farenthold (R-Texas), and the team leader, Darrel Issa (R-California), then chair of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism. Along with their other meetings, they met with the #BringBackOurGirls movement on 3 separate occasions in Abuja and had very fruitful discussions. What were our movement’s requests?

a) We wanted the US government to boost our military’s intelligence-gathering capacity which is sorely lacking. With that our girls could be more easily located and rescued, as well as the insurgency fought and won.

b) The Leahy Law prohibits the US government from offering any military assistance to foreign military units that allegedly violate human rights with impunity. At the time, Amnesty International reported that up to 8,000 people had been extrajudicially killed by the military in the northeast. Many witnesses testified that the military indeed killed more civilians than Boko Haram itself. Our movement agreed but stated that Buhari in his inauguration speech as president similarlyly admitted this and said it would be investigated with offenders brought to justice. It was a step because his predecessor never admitted this nor committed to addressing it, therefore the impunity. We said, for this reason, there was cause to give him the benefit of the doubt, they should therefore consider that the Leahy Law may no longer apply strictly to Nigeria any longer.

c) We wanted forensic investigation training and expertise for our military to help identify suicide bombers, and interrogate crime scenes.

d) There was a monumental humanitarian disaster in the northeast (and neighbouring and) involving refugees and IDPs (internally displaced persons). Their condition in the camps was abysmal, and they desperately needed to return home. We needed help with their rehabilitation from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other areas to recover, resettlement back home, reunification with loved ones, and reintegration back in society to pick up and live normal lives.

e) Further to d) we needed strengthening of our country’s trade relationship to boost the economy in the northeast as it had taken the worst hit. Poor, disempowered people were easy targets for Boko Haram recruitment, we said.

f) Finally, we asked them to keep being a voice for our Chibok girls as they had been, which was much appreciated. (Details of these meetings are captured in #BringBackOurGirls press statements on 4 August: ‘US House of Reps members visit with BBOG in Abuja’, and 5 August 2015: ‘BBOG engagement with US Reps’. Both are available online, and specifically on the movement’s Facebook page, Bringbackourgirlsng.)’We heard what we wanted to hear loudly and clearly. . .’, Rep Issa said. They agreed that our military’s greatest problems were low morale and training, needing technical support. They committed to seeing to this on their return home. And truly they did.

On 7 December 2016, the US Congress passed a bipartisan legislation, HR 3833/S 1632, introduced by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) — who was on that delegation to Nigeria — and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) mandating the US departments of state and defence to jointly develop a 5-year plan to help Nigeria in those areas listed above. And the US government did. Did or has Nigeria accepted the support? It’s not hardware they are selling, money is not involved so who cares? I don’t see any area where our military’s capacity is boosted. If it were, Boko Haram wouldn’t be running over our military formations, taking our weapons, even collecting cash from our military. The chief of army staff, Yusuf Tukur Buratai, who has been lying since October 2015 that Boko Haram has been defeated wouldn’t have resorted to ‘spiritual warfare’, as he calls it, to combat terrorism, the same terrorism he has repeatedly said has been successfully ended.
Buhari was eager to buy weapons so Donald Trump, the US president, played him and made him buy 2 Tucano jets for $496 million from the Excess Crude Account, unplanned, without appropriation, without process. Jets body has seen. 

Life in the jungle is tough. The beasts in it have no inclination for reflection. It’s all about personal survival. No one has time for empathy or concern for the other. It’s all about and always about the hustle. If schoolchildren were kidnapped, it’s their business. If they spent 2,000 days in captivity, that is their business, which is why Buhari uttered no word on the Day 2000 of the abduction and hasn’t up to now. After all, it didn’t happen when he was president and happily, his predecessor is the on the hot seat, not him and so be it. 
Babafemi Ojudu, an adviser to the president, who at the time of the abduction was a senator and one of the early #BringBackOurGirls advocates wrote a piece laying out the facts on why Cameron may be right, but failed to point out how his own principal is the same as Jonathan. He also failed to state that he attacked the #BringBackOurGirls movement when the pressure on the Buhari regime to rescue our girls was getting to them. His piece was focused on the failure of the other; partisanship, which others have reduced this too. Life in the jungle.

Some deny to this day that the Chibok girls were abducted, but insist that the Dapchi girls were and one of them, Leah Sharibu, is in captivity. For them, the issue is not about terrorism, insurgency, insecurity, abduction, captivity, failure of governance, the girl child and her education, endangered education, safe schools, inequality, empathy, humanity, etc. It’s more about partisanship and the religion of persons involved. Beasts. In 2014, the Northern Christian Elders Forum actually sat down and segregated the list the missing Chibok girls by religion! Christian elders indeed.

Every single Wednesday whenever the US Congress is in session, they hold their ‘Wear Red Wednesday’ led by Nancy Pelosi (since when she was Democratic leader), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Republican Congress chair), and Congresswoman Wilson. It’s bipartisan, biracial, male and female united by shared humanity. When last did anyone in the National Assembly say anything about the Chibok girls or the other known captives Leah Sharibu, Alice Ngaddah, et al? Even the female members. It doesn’t have anything to do with money so it’s none of their business, I guess?
Jonathan failed our Chibok girls in the early days, yes. But Buhari has failed them longer, today is Day 1600 of the captivity of 112 Chibok girls under his watch. Likewise, Day 602 of Leah Sharibu’s abduction and continued captivity. Someone, tell him to bring them back and all others in captivity. Someone say it louder, we all need to embrace our humanity, the life of the jungle, in the end, favours no one. It consumes all the beasts.