EACTING to the latest Boko Haram video which showed her abducted daughter in the midst of 49 others, Esther Yakubu, the mother, groaned about the Muhammadu Buhari presidency’s helplessness in rescuing the over 200 Chibok schoolgirls seized by insurgents from Government College, Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014. Frustrated by the government’s slow pace of action over the matter, and exasperated by their dithering and waffling, Mrs Yakubu described President Buhari’s administration as ‘more clueless than ex-president Jonathan’s.’ It is impossible not to appreciate her pains. Unlike Dr Jonathan’s administration which attempted to negotiate with the insurgents but was deceived, President Buhari’s administration has yet to provide proof of any negotiation or even rescue effort, let alone knowledge of what is happening to the girls. The insurgents themselves confirm they are not speaking to anyone, directly or indirectly.
What is remarkable about the whole abduction tragedy is the resurrection of the word ‘clueless’. It was used to the point of satiation against the Jonathan government, especially from 2012 onwards when it became obvious that the country’s social and economic troubles, not to talk of the Boko Haram insurgency, were not experiencing any amelioration. The epithet stuck like glue and dogged the Jonathan presidency to its last days in office. The ex-president lamented the insult, and his aides and political associates from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and even the Labour Party (LP) denounced the abuse. But all the efforts to exculpate Dr Jonathan failed spectacularly. The public had concluded he was to blame for everything, and there was nothing anyone could do or say to dissuade them.
However, addressing a meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in late August 2012, some two years into his presidency, Dr Jonathan had complained painfully: “I’m the most criticised president in the whole world. I can tell this noble audience that before I leave, I will also be the most praised president…Sometimes I ask, ‘Were there roads across this country and Jonathan brought floods to wipe out these roads?…Or, we have power and I brought hurricanes to bring down all infrastructure?…So, were there massive irrigation projects in the north where agriculture can thrive and massive farms, and Jonathan brought drought to wipe out these farms (in) under two years?” It was clear Dr Jonathan was unable to give concreteness to the people’s pains, nor to appreciate their yearnings.
Sadly, President Buhari, if care is not taken, will also begin to validate the people’s impression of his dithering, miscomprehension and inattentiveness. Like Dr Jonathan, he has been unable to respond well to the country’s socio-economic troubles, considering how he and his aides and supporters constantly accuse his predecessor of being responsible for the country’s woes. But he is reminded that the people voted for him specifically because they lost faith in Dr Jonathan’s capacity and ability, and would therefore appreciate if they were not constantly reminded of the former president’s failings. President Buhari has, however, stuck to that single narrative, immobilised, it seems, by the overwhelming consequences of his predecessor’s failure to right the wrongs of the distant past. Dr Jonathan himself, as is evident from the quotation above, blamed his predecessors for the woes he was unable to tackle.
Already, many PDP leaders, including some of its vociferous and self-appointed spokesmen, have described the Buhari administration as clueless. They cite his approach to forming his cabinet, a task he reluctantly began and concluded after many months of pussyfooting. They also cite the lopsidedness of his appointments, drawing a comparison with that of Dr Jonathan. And they also take a number of social and economic indicators, particularly the exchange rate, to validate their impression of what they describe as President Buhari’s cluelessness and incapacity. On the other hand, the Buhari administration reminds Nigerians that Dr Jonathan’s administration laid the foundation for the economic chaos being experienced. But for the PDP and its strident spokesmen, if not increasingly the generality of Nigerians, the epithet of cluelessness being attached to the Buhari administration will become more plausible as the socio-economic indicators worsen.
But much more than the PDP and its self-appointed spokesmen, Mrs Yakubu, mother of the abducted Dorcas shown on the Boko Haram video, may become the most powerful proselyte of the disdained word being deployed against the Buhari administration. Neither she nor any parent of the abducted girls can understand why the government has found it difficult to decide what to do about the abduction. Boko Haram, the parents and the public know, has called for negotiation and even gone ahead to give conditions for dialogue. A few individuals, including the three people recently and curiously declared wanted by the military, have offered their services to negotiate with the insurgents. Instead, the public has been fed contradictory statements, both from government spokesmen who insist without corroboration that they were negotiating in camera, and the president himself who has repeatedly said he had no idea where and how to locate or identify Boko Haram leaders or the abducted girls.
The release of the new video is both a desperate attempt by Boko Haram to put pressure on the government and parents of the abducted girls and an indication that they are running out of time to stave off final and comprehensive defeat. It is perhaps in response to that pressure that the military has lashed out at those who offered to link the government with the sect, perhaps believing that either one or all of them were instrumental to the release of that unfavourable video. Some members of the public could also begin to suspect that by arresting the two intermediaries, who have now been admitted to bail, the military or the government could in fact be uninterested in resolving the thorny issue or be inclined to force the arrested people to disclose information the authorities believe they possess. Overall, it is hard to see how the recent steps taken by the military would lead to a resolution of the matter.
If the resurrected word ‘clueless’ is not to stick on the Buhari administration — for the Jonathan administration is receding in the people’s memory — the president will have to take, among other great measures on the economy, firm and quick action to resolve the Chibok abduction logjam. He has not shown any inclination to do something profound and substantial about the problem beyond giving assurances that the sect would be defeated and the girls returned home. Indeed, it is even more evident that by not concretely and publicly displaying readiness to negotiate, he seems to be saying unfortunately that the detained Boko Haram militants are more valuable than the abducted schoolgirls. This is the impression the parents of the girls and the BringBackOurGirls campaigners say they have got from the government’s direct and indirect signals.
The Information minister, Lai Mohammed, has talked of secret discussions with Boko Haram contacts, a fact the sect’s videos have refuted. The president on the other hand gives only the impression he is wrought-up over the abduction, and the military’s spokesmen assert the sect has been destroyed as a fighting force. However, no one can bank on their words. They had said the sect’s leader Abubakar Shekau was dead; now it seems he is not dead after all. So, no one can really say with certainty what the government is doing and how far it has gone. Is the Buhari administration really as clueless as Mrs Yakubu and the PDP say it is? If it is not, then, beyond platitudes, the administration must feel it owes the public some explanations, and be prepared to tell them just how far it has gone. Surely, prisoner swap is not rocket science.
More, if the Buhari administration is not to attract the kind of opprobrium the Jonathan administration exposed itself to, especially given the parlous state of the economy, they have a responsibility to bring the Chibok abduction to a swift and satisfying end. Boko Haram leaders have thrown them a lifeline. The government should take it if it does not illogically think the detained insurgents are more valuable in detention than the captive schoolgirls set free. The Jonathan government fell principally because of fears about a declining economy it was incapable of mitigating, and its prolonged inability to rescue the Chibok girls. Now the economy is in full decline with no prospect of a rebound anytime soon, and the girls have withered (dead or married off) in captivity. Even if it resolves the Chibok nightmare, the government will still be unable to obviate the epithet of cluelessness until the economy is revived. It is worse if the administration is unable to achieve both.
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