Those who closely follow the global effort to #BringBackTheGirls of Chibok, must be greatly puzzled by the very slow response of the Nigerian government to the news of the kidnapping or to ameliorate the plight of the Chibok people. As new Amnesty International information indicates that the military got prior information of the attack and did nothing extra to ward it off and as the world appears to show more care for the Chibok people than its own government, people will obviously wonder why. Unfortunately, the Information Minister’s response on CNN which has been to suggest either that government did not receive the information or that there was a process failure that needs to be investigated, is not satisfactory.
Most other responses have simply blamed it on the gross incompetence of the government but that is not quite true because there was federal response, no matter how tepid, callous or ineffective it now appears to be. That response was to request more information and confirmation that the incident happened at all or that it happened the way it was being reported. While it was a response of doubt and skepticism and therefore not a response any government will be quick to own up to, it is a response that is firmly rooted in this government’s belief that Boko Haram is either a political problem or has a political solution.
There is strong conviction in many quarters that Boko Haram’s activities have escalated in fulfillment of political threats to make governance difficult for this president after the last elections. In addition to that, President Jonathan himself being a veteran of the Niger Delta peace process which resolved militancy in the south with a political amnesty, is highly unlikely to risk further military resources on a problem he is convinced may be resolved politically.
Unfortunately, such skepticism has led to significant distrust between federal and local or state authorities as well as between the military and the parents or affected parties which has made the necessary collaboration virtually impossible. The slow response is also not helped by poor military preparedness which put our security personnel at a severe disadvantage to the more motivated and better equipped terrorists and which recent media accounts of military conditions in those areas blame on corruption among military hierarchy.
In September 2010, the military successfully rescued, within a week, fifteen schoolchildren who were kidnapped in Abia State. Subsequent military onslaught on the kidnappers led to the return of peace and calm to an area which had been held hostage by ruthless and notorious criminals for a very long time. That makes me believe that the military can also solve this problem if the politics is taken care of.
My hope is that the current global attention will force all parties to put on their best show in order to #BringtheGirlsBack. There is an opportunity for this government to then seize the momentum and permanently emasculate Boko Haram and that process might require a transformation of the Nigerian military capability. But for that momentum to be seized successfully, it is imperative to do the fundamental work of combating corruption and instituting good governance and that is what I address in “The Survival Mindset: A Systematic Approach to Combating Corruption in Nigeria.”
