One picture stood out from the rest. It was the picture of a boy of about five years in a pink shirt and blue shorts speeding away from school. The look on his face and the way his right foot shot into the air showed his determination and desperation to get out of harm’s way.
Unlike other children behind him, the boy had no schoolbag or lunchbox. He must have abandoned those items in the school before running for dear life. His bag or whatever possession of his meant nothing compared to his determination to escape from the threat.
If that boy was sought and groomed for athletics, Nigeria could have a Chidi Imoh in the making, especially at a time like this when the country has virtually disappeared from global track and field medal table but for occasional triumphs recorded by Blessing Okagbare.
There was another picture that told a million stories. It came in three shots. It was the picture of a young mother who stood by the locked gate of a school with other parents. It was obvious they wanted to enter the school to take their children. When it became clear that the school authorities were not keen on opening the gate, the woman was shown in another shot scaling the fence of the school in her gown, while another woman stood behind her waiting probably to follow suit. Maternal instinct was at work.
The rumour was that the members of the Nigerian military were coming to schools in the South-East to forcefully vaccinate schoolchildren. There were different stories, one of which was that the soldiers would inject monkeypox or some deadly disease into the children in continuation of their Operation Python Dance II in the South-East.
In this era of mobile telephony and the Internet, the rumour spread fast. Within minutes schoolchildren were either fleeing from schools or parents had besieged the schools to take their children home.
Reacting to the rumour, the 82 Division of the Nigerian Army said: “The Division wishes to make it clear that the free medical outreach is not a vaccine intended to infect monkeypox or any major contemporary or emerging diseases in Nigeria to the people of South-East or any part of the country.
“The exercise is part of the corporate social responsibility initiatives imbued into the overall Exercise Egwu Eke II package, to the people of the South-Eastern Region which is the Area of Responsibility of the 82 Division NA and is also the theatre of the Exercise.”
Therefore, the Nigerian Army had gone to Ozubulu in the Ekwusigo Local Government Area to conduct a free medical programme. But before their arrival in Ozubulu, there had been messages that the Nigerian Army should not be allowed to vaccinate children in the South-East, given their activities during the Operation Python Dance II (also known as Egwu Eke II in Igbo), which claimed lives and involved torture. The messages accused the Nigerian Army of using the opportunity of the vaccination to reduce the population of the South-East. The rumour later said it was monkeypox that the army would inject into the children. At first, the rumour sounded weird. But when the Nigerian Army personnel were seen in Ozubulu conducting the medical outreach, news went round that the soldiers were in Ozubulu forcefully vaccinating schoolchildren. It tallied with the earlier rumour that the soldiers were planning to vaccinate schoolchildren. It caused mass hysteria. Parents besieged schools to take away their children while schoolchildren fled from schools. There was a kind of pandemonium in the South-East states as well as in neighbouring Delta State. Schools were hurriedly closed. The social media and the mainstream media went wild.
Clearly, the rumour was masterminded by those who wanted to get back at the military, especially for the shooting of civilians recently in the South-East as part of the Operation Python Dance II. Members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, acting as individuals or a group, may most likely have their hand in that rumour. It is condemnable, because the panic it caused could have caused the deaths of people. It could have also caused a psychological fear for schools by many South-East children.
However, it was a clear message to the military and the government of President Muhammadu Buhari. That message was that the people of the South-East are alienated from the administration of Buhari and have no trust in the Nigerian military. The Nigerian Army that should protect the citizens from external aggression turned their guns on the citizens and fired, leaving many dead, and the whereabouts of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of IPOB and Director of Radio Biafra, still unknown.
The South-East has always had a high rate of participation in all immunisation programmes. Consequently, it has had a good record on freedom from deadly childhood diseases like polio and measles and adult diseases like meningitis, leprosy, guinea worm, and the like. If the immunisation or free medical outreach was from organisations like Red Cross, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rotary International, such a rumour would have been dismissed as baseless.
The military chose a wrong community service project in the South-East. It will be difficult to convince the people that the military meant well. Imagine suspecting that someone was responsible for the death of your father and then receiving Christmas food from that person. If you were polite, you would accept the food but throw it into the trashcan later. If you were not the politically correct type, you would tell the person bluntly that you would not accept any food item from an enemy.
Rather than embark on a medical programme in the South-East, I think the military should have done something else like cleaning the streets, painting the sidewalks, rehabilitating some schools or community hospitals or some roads. While executing any of the above-listed projects, passersby and the benefiting communities would see the soldiers in action. Gradually, the people may start to feel that the Nigerian Army means well.
As things stand today, wrongly or rightly, the people of the South-East believe that the Nigerian Army and the administration of Buhari wish them dead. It is, therefore, contradictory that these two groups would be involved in saving or caring for the lives of these same people. That was why the schoolchildren fled. That was why parents besieged schools to take their children away.
The Nigerian Army needs to build trust first in the South-East. Buhari has approached his relationship with the South-East the wrong way. It is not the South-East people who will first of all love Buhari for him to love them. Buhari needs to show the South-East people in practical ways that he loves them, and they will reciprocate.
Inviting South-East state governors and political office holders to Aso Rock and promising them what he will do for the South-East will not win the hearts of the South-East people. On most Nigerian issues, the common people do not feel that political office holders represent their interest.
Unlike in other climes where the President visits different parts of the country in times of celebration or mourning, when tragedies befall any part of Nigeria, the governor of the affected state goes to Abuja to meet with the President. The President does not know how to show that he cares for the people. He keeps away from the people he governs. He does not even grant local interviews or engage in townhall meetings with the people.
The Nigeria Army is under the command of Buhari. If Buhari continues to do things his own way, he will continue to get the same result.
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