Kudos For Rescue Attempts Of Chibok Girls -By Imikan attah

President Muhammadu Buhari, when he spoke to the nation recently about Boko Haram, said that “Nigeria will not negotiate out of fear”. The president came to his inauguration ceremony already working. He gave the order right at the Eagle Square and ordered the Command of the Nigerian Army to move to Borno, the Boko Haram enclave.

If others hit the ground running, then Buhari hit the nation’s stage smoking hot!

He has since announced that in 18 months, Boko Haram would be routed from our shores. In fact, in recent times, he has announced that the deadline for annihilation of the sect will be 3 months.

And now men, women and children are regaining their freedom, daily from Boko Haram’s deadly grip. Recently, the Chief of Army Staff, along with eight other Generals, reportedly, spent a night at Gamburugala- a former stronghold of the dreaded Boko Haram!

Six months earlier, Nigerian generals stayed cushy in Abuja, dishing out commands to junior officers on the field, which they sent out there to die, not to fight. Today, Buhari has equipped, reorganised and reinvigorated the Nigerian Army such that a feeling of safety has returned to the north west region.

In just over three months, and after 10 years of proliferation and conflagration, Muhammadu Buhari has almost brought the monster down. Yes, suicide bombings have occurred recently, but these have been on soft targets, indicative of desperation at near defeat.

Uncharitable people have called Buhari slow, some have said he is not even doing anything, but the president remains focused. And the results are showing. Indeed, it is no thanks to Boko Haram that Nigeria is the biggest problem that Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Benin have today.

But President Buhari has reached out to each of these countries, and has received their unreserved co-operation in the war against Nigeria’s home-grown terrorism, with tangible results of overcoming the war in all these countries that Boko Haram has spread to.

Today, it is distressing to many to see Nigerians appearing on Al-Jazeera, not commending these gains, but complaining to the world that – President Buhari has NOT appointed people from their tribe, to federal positions! Was giving tribal positions one of Buhari’s electoral promises? Or is that a part of his job description?! It is disgusting to many to watch some section of Nigerians take their gospel of ethnicity, and the promotion of mediocrity to the international stage.

At that Buhari’s inauguration ceremony I spoke of earlier, a CNN reporter who interviewed me had asked me what challenges faced Nigeria. I listed the most obvious, and then told him – but the most important to tackle now is security. I said to him there can be no development, without security.

The international community is today interested in what Buhari is doing.

For now, there is one issue that is constituting, and remains, an assault on our collective psyche: THE CHIBOK GIRLS. This is because, for every day that these Chibok girls remain in captivity, like it or not, WE remain in captivity, WE, you and I, are not really, truly free.

It appears no-one is more acutely aware of this fact than President Buhari. Recently he let it be known that negotiations had been opened between the Nigeria government and the Boko Haram. These negotiations are purely to secure the release of the Chibok girls!

The offer made by Boko Haram was as far reaching as even Amnesty! That this is all happening at all, now, 548 days and counting since these girls were abducted, must be a source of hope to everyone in Nigeria today,

–Chief Attah wrote in from Abuja