Chibok Girls: The Rescue Mess

Intrigues, double dealings and unnecessary dithering mar efforts to rescue the Chibok school girls two months after their abduction. As the days roll by, so do their agonies mount. Before the end of this week, their daughters who were snatched from their schools in the thick of their final school leaving examinations would have clocked two full months in the custody of their deadly abductors. Despite the global attention the abduction has continued to attract, and the repeated promises of eventual rescue of the girls, mostly teenagers, by President Goodluck Jonathan and other government officials, the fact as at the time of writing this story last week, is that no one is sure of when the over 200 children will be restored to their parents. [caption id="attachment_1025" align="alignleft" width="300"] the abducted schoolgirls[/caption]Yet, parents of the abductees, as shown in Lagos last week, have stubbornly refused to yield to even the faintest suggestion that they may not see their daughters again by clinging to the memories they shared together. “Her dream is to be a medical doctor. She used to say that she helps me in the farm to ensure that I would have enough money to train her as a doctor in the university,” one of the over 20 mothers of the abducted children brought to Lagos last week for intensive therapy for trauma told journalists of her daughter’s ambition. The mothers’ journey from Chibok, Borno State, where the girls were abducted on 14 April, to Lagos was facilitated by three non-governmental organisations, led by the Omoluabi Network. The women were said to have arrived in Lagos penultimate Saturday, terribly sick and in terrible physical and mental shape, a result of the trauma they have gone through since their children were taken away. Their anguish, seven weeks after the abduction of their daughters, was palpable. Reverend Ladi Thomson, founder, Omoluabi Network, said the women were brought to Lagos for intensive therapy that will aid their recovery from the shock and pains of the abduction as well as to prove that the girls were actually kidnapped. According to him, the initiative is part of Care for Our Girls campaign, an initiative which will focus on restoration of the girls and their parents to their pre-abduction mental, psychological and physical state of being. “I miss my daughter very much. The day she was abducted, I felt like killing myself or disappearing from the world,” said another mother. “I am pleading to the government to help. We, mothers of those girls, are in real pain. Those of us you see here are better than those that are not here. Some of us are already having psychological problems, calling our daughters day and night, but unfortunately the daughters are nowhere to be found. Some of the mothers of those girls do not eat. They are suffering internally and physically,” said yet another mother of the abducted girls who was part of those in Lagos. Just like she said, reports about three weeks ago had indicated that Mary Paul Lalai, mother of one of the abducted teenagers, had died due to the shock of her daughter’s abduction. Aimu Fona, representing Chibok constituency in the Borno State House of Assembly, confirmed the death. Another report indicated that some parents had taken to heavy drinking while a woman has developed a mental disorder due to the trauma of the teenagers’ kidnap. Three of the 57 students who escaped from their abductors were also in Lagos with the mothers. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State said in Maiduguri last Monday that the state will employ the services of trauma experts to take care of the students that escaped from their kidnappers as well as put them in schools outside the state. Yet, there is no doubt that the immediate solution to the agonies of the distraught parents in particular and concerned individuals across the country, will be news of the rescue of all the abducted girls. To this end, Nigeria has continued to receive offers of help across the world to prise the girls from their abductors. Last week, Australia joined the league of countries willing to help Nigeria bring back the girls. Julian Bishop, Australia’s Foreign Minister, said her country is ready to make the services of its special forces available to help Nigeria to rescue the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. “Australian troops, the SAS, are always on standby for contingencies. We have made an offer to the Nigerian government to provide whatever support they need to release the girls. We’ve made a specific offer to our UK and US allies … that we are ready to assist in whatever way we can,” said Bishop, who added that her country has not had a response to the offer from the Nigerian government. Military men and other experts from Britain, France and the United States, three of the countries that had earlier offered to help Nigeria, are already working with Nigerian troops in the search for the girls. FG Irritated Being Confronted By Its Failure Ironically, while governments of other countries have continued to express outrage over the sheer scale of the abduction and seeming inaction to rescue the girls, the reverse seemed to be the case with the federal government. Indeed, it would appear that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is increasingly becoming uncomfortable or irritated with local and global demands for urgent rescue of the girls. The increasing irritability of the Jonathan administration to the persistent calls to duty as the constitutionally empowered guarantor of security of life and property in Nigeria, according to an analyst, was reflected in the attempt to ban all protests aimed at pressuring it to take immediate actions that will lead to the release of the abducted girls by the Federal Capital Territory Police Command last Monday. The ban order, unarguably, was targeted at the Abuja family of ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ movement which had, since 30 April, conducted daily sit-outs in Abuja to help keep the issue of the kidnapped girls on the front burner of global discourse. Operating under the aegis of Women for Peace and Justice, the group had literally taken to the streets the campaign which began on Twitter with the #BringBackOurGirls, created out of frustration with government’s initial lack of response to the abduction of the girls. The Twitter campaign has gone viral across the world, with celebrities and top government officials such as the First Lady of United States, Mrs Michelle Obama and Malala Yousafai joining in. Out of the cyberspace, the group, led by Oby Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala, has also succeeded in galvanising similar protests, rallies and processions calling for urgent rescue of the girls across cities in Nigeria and throughout the world. The movement met with the leadership of the National Assembly, Nigeria’s military chiefs and the Borno State governor to demand action on the rescue of the girls. But the federal government became increasingly uncomfortable with the group as the popularity of its campaign for release of the girls grew, especially with the media coverage it has generated across the globe. Before the ban order by Mbu, the police had actually attempted to disrupt the daily gathering of the group. On 11 May for instance, a large number of armed policemen sealed off Unity Fountain, the venue of the daily sit outs of the group, based on what a senior officer said was “orders from above” to stop the gathering which, according to him, has become “offensive, illegal and must be discontinued”. Some leaders of the movement were even arrested and later released after interventions from higher quarters. “I was beaten on the streets of Lagos during the military regime. I will not take it in a democracy. We have the right to stand here and demand that the government bring back our girls. We will continue to demand that they bring back our girls until the government acts according to their responsibility,” Ezekwesili said of the determination of the group to continue with the protests after the intimidation by the police. In his attempt to ban the protest last Monday, Mbu had claimed that the police had information that dangerous elements were about to join the group under the guise of protest and detonate explosives aimed at embarrassing the government. “People have been protesting over a month now. It is the issue of terrorism, it is not solved in one day. Then, when you continue to do it persistently, it becomes a nuisance to the government,” the police chief famous for his lack of respect for rule of law as Rivers State Commissioner of Police said when asked whether the ban would not violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and assembly of the protesters. Mbu further argued that the ban was not aimed at only #BringBackTheGirls campaign directed at the federal government. But Nigerians are not fooled by Mbu’s attempt to mask his action as a pre-emptive measure. Though the #BringBackOurGirls protesters have denied having any political agenda, supporters of the President have said their activities are targeted at bringing down the government. The police ban is therefore believed to be in furtherance of the hostility of the federal government to the #BringBackOurGirls protesters which it now regarded as an initiative of the opposition party despite the global attention it has gathered. For one, the police action came less than a week after Labaran Maku, the minister of Information, voiced government’s increasing irritation with the protests, with the ridiculous claim that 90 per cent of #BringBackOurGirls protesters are actually members of the opposition All Progressives Congress. About two days after police had stood watching as members of a group tagged #ReleaseOurGirls, a counter-protest believed to be sponsored by government, harassed the #BringBackOurGirls protesters at the Unity Fountain. The new group, whose members were bused to the venue of the protest in government-owned SURE-P buses, said they were not calling on the government for the rescue of the girls but directing their grievances to Boko Haram members. The counter-protest was an actualisation of the charge to the #BringBackOurGirls group to direct their demand for release of the girls at the terrorists during an earlier protest to the Aso Rock presidential villa. “Well, what does one make of a government that has now rented a crowd of delinquents to attack the ‘bring back our girls’ protesters and counter their message? Nigerians voted for Goodluck Jonathan as President, and not for the terrorist called Abubakar Shekau. It is therefore right for them to demand action to return the girls safely from their President, rather than from the anarchist, Shekau,” APC said in a statement condemning the attack on the protesters who have been very peaceful and orderly in conduct since they started. Despite the reversal of the ban order by Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector-General of Police, a day after, the group had instituted a suit against the ban by Mbu. Critics however said the attack of the protesters and the directive that they should direct their protests at Boko Haram is reflective of the manner the government has handled the issue of the abducted girls since the event occurred. As pointed out by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in an interview last week, the President was in disbelief about the abduction of the girls for over two weeks after the event. Thus, for two weeks, there was no concrete action to rescue the girls as the President and his officials dithered on the need for action, believing the abduction was stage-managed for political purposes. This initial delay, Obasanjo, like other analysts believed, jeopardised the chances of immediate rescue of the girls. “If the President got the information within 12 hours of the act and he reacted immediately, I believe those girls would have been rescued within 24 hours, maximum, 48 hours. Don’t forget, they are almost 300 girls. The logistics of moving them is something the sect would have encountered. Unfortunately, the President had doubts: Is this true? Is this a ploy by some people who don’t want me to be President again? Who is doing this?” Obasanjo told Bloomberg Television early last week. Speaking in the same vein, Ezekwesili said the failure of government to rescue the girls so far is the consequence of the systematic indifference that followed the news of the abduction: “Until the Federal Government own up to the truth of their nearly three weeks of neglect of our Chibok girls, it makes it harder for citizens to believe their efforts.” However, with the persistent demands for action by the #BringBackOurGirls protesters, which aroused interests of people around the world to the fact of the abduction and the then approaching World Economic Forum for Africa, government was forced to act. Apart from accepting offers of support which were coming from all over the world, the first concrete step of President Jonathan was the setting up of a rather unwieldy Presidential Fact Finding Committee on the abduction of the Chibok Girls on 5 May. The committee, which has over 20 members, is chaired by Brigadier-General Ibrahim Sabo. The committee, according to the President, is to interface with all those concerned with the abductions to provide a well-coordinated input to the investigations and circumstances related to the kidnapping of the girls. Critics believe that the job of the committee could have been better handled by the police. However, just as the committee has been doing its work, Nigeria’s Armed Forces and their partners from countries that have offered to help Nigeria, especially the United States, have been combing the Sambisa forest for the girls. Hope of eventual rescue of the girls was heightened on 12 May with the release of a video showing 130 girls by Boko Haram. Abubakar Shekau, leader of the violent sect, who spoke in the video, said the teenagers were among the students kidnapped in Chibok. The girls were dressed in full muslim gowns and were seen reciting Quranic verses. Shekau had called for a swap of the girls with detained insurgents, saying: “We will never release [the girls] until after you release our brethren.” This magazine gathered that about 2,000 Boko Haram members, including some commanders of the insurgent group, are in detention of various Nigeria security agencies. To authenticate the identity of the girls shown in the video, the Borno State Government had organised viewing sessions where over 70 parents from the Chibok area were said to have been able to identify their children among those shown in the video. Many analysts said then that the release of the video indicated that the sect was ready to negotiate the release of the girls. The initial response to the offer of release of the girls for Boko Haram detainees was a firm no from the Nigerian government. Comrade Abba Moro, minister of Interior, rejecting the offer, said it was ‘absurd’ for terrorists to be giving conditions for release of the girls. But confusion about government’s disposition to the terrorists’ offer heightened when Tanimu Turaki, minister of Special Duties, who has been involved in working out a sort of amnesty offer for repented Boko Haram members, said government was open to consider all options to get the girls out. President Jonathan himself later told William Hague, the British Foreign Minister who visited him some days after, that government will not negotiate or exchange prisoners with Boko Haram for the release of the girls. That was before the President left Nigeria for France for a security summit devoted to tackling rising terrorism in the West African sub-region. Chaotic Rescue Efforts A report in Sunday Mail, a British newspaper, indicated that contrary to the assertion by government, it had initiated a deal that would have led to a swap of Boko Haram detainees with the abducted girls, using Ahmed Salkida, a Nigeria journalist with long-term links to the insurgent group, as a negotiator. The Mail said a Nigerian journalist who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, was introduced to the President by a minister from the North and was appointed by both the government and the extremists to broker an agreement for the release of the girls in exchange for Boko Haram members in detention. The newspaper said Salkida was encouraged by the President’s aides to embark on a “secretive and dangerous” trip home to meet Shekau, after the President “personally signed a letter of indemnity” protecting him from arrest by security agents. As reported by the newspaper, the deal eventually brokered by the journalist would have seen the Nigerian government releasing 100 “non-combatant, low-level sympathisers” of Boko Haram, rather than commanders and foot soldiers, in exchange for the abducted girls. “Sources in Abuja described how Shekau had agreed to bring the girls out of their forest camps in the remote northeast of the country in the early morning and take them to a safe location for the prisoner swap. They would have been dropped off in a village, one group at a time, and left them there while their kidnappers disappeared. There was to be a signal to a mediator at another location to bring in the prisoners,” the newspaper said of the deal, which it said was called off on 17 May from France by the Nigerian President. But as it emerged early last week, the deal brokered by the former journalist is just one of the several others that have been called off at the last minute by government in the past one month. As revealed by another British media organisation, Channel 4, Stephen Davis, an Anglican clergyman from Western Australia who helped broker an amnesty deal with Niger Delta militants, has also been working for the Nigerian government, trying to fashion out a deal with Boko Haram for the release of the abducted girls. The report indicated that the clergyman has been operating quietly as President Jonathan’s envoy, negotiating behind the scenes with Boko Haram for more than a month. According to the newspaper, the Australian has repeatedly braved the odds of violence in the region to have face-to-face meetings with Boko Haram commanders, working in conjunction with Aisha Wakil, a Muslim convert with known connections to the insurgent group. A Nigerian newspaper had actually listed Davis, Salkida and Wakil as the negotiators leading government’s back-channel talks with Boko Haram. But the Australian believed that blowing off the lid on the negotiators is part of the intrigues by those determined to frustrate any deal with the sect. According to Channel 4, Davis has not been impressed with the handling of the abduction and is positive that the girls will be released at the end of the day. “It’s complicated and it all lurches from pillar to post and things don’t get any better for the girls,” saidDavis, who also described the deliberate leakage of his name as unhelpful to the ongoing negotiations with the Boko Haram group. “The best way to do this is quiet and quick. But this is now loud and long. There are too many players from the two sides. This noise and clutter slows down the process and muddies the water,” Channel 4 quoted the cleric as telling it from an undisclosed location in Nigeria. “It has become a very messy affair,” the cleric added. The Australian told the media organisation that his team had “come within a whisker” of reaching a deal for the release of the girls three times, which failed to sail through within the past month. He also said the missing girls are being held in three main camps, under different Boko Haram commanders, all of them outside Nigeria’s borders. “Every indication is positive. But as we get close to a handover, I am sure that there will be interference from some parties who do not want to see an end to the conflict in the North. That will be the most difficult time,” Channel 4 quoted the clergyman as saying. Davis also confirmed claims by villagers across Borno State that the abduction of girls did not start with the Chibok students as there are many more girls in the custody of the insurgent group. He had earlier told Daily Mail of London that it will be very difficult to use the military to rescue the girls since they are being held in several camps and by several groups under different commanders. Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh had told a group of protesters two weeks ago that the military was aware of where the girls are being kept, but has been cautious so as not to put the girls in further danger. “The vast majority of the Chibok girls are not being held in Nigeria. They are in camps across the Nigerian border in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. I say the vast majority as I know a small group was confirmed to me to be in Nigeria last week when we sought to have them released,” Daily Mail quoted the Australian as saying. “To attempt to rescue one group would only endanger the others,” said Davis. “We must not endanger their lives any further,” he added. The newspaper also claimed that there have been two attempts to exchange the abducted girls for low level members of the insurgent group, which were sabotaged at the last minute. Some of the girls, according to him, are ill and in need of urgent medical attention, but the logistics of handing them over has prevented their release by their abductors, the cleric told the British newspaper. Also, the British newspaper reported that it had also seen a third video in which eight of the abducted girls, dressed in their pale blue gingham school uniform, pleaded for release. The newspaper said the video, which may have been shot in a jungle in Nigeria, has been presented to President Jonathan. “A tall girl, aged about 18, says tearfully, ‘My family will be worried’. Another, speaking softly, says: ‘I never expected to suffer like this in my life’. A third says: ‘They have taken us away by force’. The fourth girl complains: ‘We are not getting enough food’,” the newspaper said of the video, which it described as heartbreaking. Doyin Okupe, the Senior Special Assistant to President Jonathan on Public Affairs, confirmed last week that the President is in receipt of the video. Analysts who spoke to this magazine last week contended that each passing day complicates efforts to rescue the girls. The fact that most of the girls may no longer be in the Nigerian territory, according to them, has also complicated the rescue efforts as the government may have to now deal with government of other countries if it want to get the girls out. The Nigerian military, as stated by Badeh, has also ruled out a commando-like rescue out of concern for the safety of the girls. So what is stopping the President from going ahead with the swap offer put before him by Boko Haram? There were insinuations last week that some Nigerian military top brass who are benefitting from increased defence budgets as a result of the worsening insurgency may be sabotaging efforts at peaceful rescue of the girls. This aside, it is also doubtful if the President and his aides have completely come to terms with the reality of the abduction despite the evidence before them. They believe that the abduction is part of the conspiracy against the President, a southerner, by some northern politicians, to frustrate him from continuing in office beyond 2015; just as they believe the Boko Haram insurgency itself is there to make the country ungovernable by Jonathan. This is in spite of the fact that Boko Haram predates the Jonathan administration, though it has been allowed to fester in the past three years. To try to shift the blame on who was responsible or prove that the abduction was pre-planed, aides and supporters of the President had raised questions on why the school remained open when others had been ordered closed as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency; why the Borno State government failed to abide by the advice of the West African Examinations Council not to hold exams in the school, and why adequate security was not provided for the students among others. All these were on the terms of reference of the committee set up by the President. Borno State Government has however defended itself with the argument that apart from the school in Chibok, there were five other examination centres in parts of the state, including areas not far from Chibok, that there were used by students. The government also said it informed the state’s Commissioner of Police to provide security for the students among others. Yet, when Okupe was asked if he believed that the students were actually abducted last week, he replied that only God, Governor Kashim Shettima, Borno Commissioner for Education and the principal of the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Chibok know the truth about the girls’ abduction. Apart from government officials, Nigerians have also been divided on the propriety or otherwise of swapping members of the deadly sect, some of whom may have blood in their hands, with the abducted girls, a reflection of the dilemma also confronting the government. Some government officials are also arguing that giving in to the demand of Boko Haram will make the government seem weak. Senator David Mark, the president of the Senate and one of those believed to have the ears of the President, has persistently argued that government should not negotiate with Boko Haram elements, whom he described as ‘criminals’. He has advocated an all-out military approach to tackling the nuisance of the group since it failed to embrace previous peace offers by government. Mike Ozekhome, a senior lawyer, however said the lives of the abducted girls should not be wasted on the altar of government’s grandstanding and engagement niceties. According to him, government should not allow itself to be held back by any inhibition if engagement with the terrorists will bring out the girls alive. “There are times when a government stoops to conquer. I dare say that the Federal Government should negotiate even with Satan, if that would bring back our girls. Even Satan would be humbled and diminished by such an unprecedented strategy,” Ozekhome said. This position was also supported by Shehu Sani, a northern Nigeria-based human rights activist who has been involved in previous efforts to end Boko Haram insurgency. The activist has initiated another initiative to free the abducted girls, using Obasanjo as a front in discussion with the insurgent group. While noting that using force to free the girls may result in tragic consequences, the activist said federal government should embrace the swap offer. “The Federal Government is in a dilemma. Those in government see that negotiation will make the government to be weak. And if they use force, it may turn tragic with Nigerians blaming them. This is why swapping of the girls is an option the government should consider. By now, we would have forgotten this challenge,” Sanni said. It was also believed that countries like the United States and Britain which have come to help Nigeria in rescuing the girls are not well disposed to the swap arrangement and that this is influencing government’s dithering over the issue. Analysts who described such positions by the foreign countries as hypocritical noted that the developed countries had engaged in such deals at one time or the other. They pointed to the recent United States’ prisoner-swap to free its soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been in the custody of the Taliban in Afghanistan for five years. The American soldier was exchanged for five high-ranking Taliban detainees in US in a deal brokered by the Qatari government. Israel has also at various times exchanged prisoners of war for its citizens in detention of several of its Arab neighbours, including Palestine which can be described as the arch-enemy of the Jewish State. The United Nations recognises the exchange or prisoner swaps between two opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners. Articles 68 to 74 of the Geneva Convention also recognises exchange of especially prisoners of war among countries and the International Red Cross carried out one of the largest exchange programmes under the Geneva Convention during the Second World War. However, Femi Falana, former president of West African Bar Association and a senior advocate of Nigeria, argued that the girls should not be exchanged for Boko Haram members since they are not prisoners of war. “They are not soldiers of the Nigerian Army, therefore, there is no lawful ground for such a demand,” he said. Still, some analysts pointed out that the March 2014 deal between Syria and rebels fighting in the country should be a model for a potential deal by Nigerian government with Boko Haram. The deal saw the rebels releasing a group of Greek Orthodox nuns they had held for three months after being abducted from their convent in a prisoner exchange involving some 150 women and children held by the Syrian government. The deal was negotiated by officials from Qatar and Lebanon. This magazine gathered that continuous mass slaughter of people in attacks by Boko Haram in the past weeks has also not encouraged government in moving forward with the negotiations to release the girls. The group had in the last two weeks killed over 1,000 people in attacks across the three North-east states. Last Monday, the group killed no fewer than 300 villagers in three communities around Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State. The insurgent had three days before killed the Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idriss Timta, who was on his way to Gombe alongside Emir of Uba, Alhaji Ismaila Mamza; and Emir of Askira, Alhaji Abdullahi Askirama. The other two traditional rulers were lucky to escape during the attack which also claimed their security details and aides. Suspected Boko Haram militants in another attack in Barderi, near Maiduguri, Borno State, also killed about 45 people. The group seems to relish the international attention the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls has brought to it and is using the opportunity to commit even greater atrocities, said one analyst. Yet, government said last week that it will still explore all options to secure the release of the girls. This is in spite of the fact that President Jonathan or any of his top aides has not acknowledged the back-channel negotiations with the insurgent group. “The Federal Government is totally committed and focused towards ensuring that our beloved children, kidnapped girls, are returned safe and sound. Therefore, as we said before, all options in line with international best practices are open in this case,” Mike Omeri, the coordinator of the National Information Centre set up by the Federal Government to give regular update on the security operations in the North-east said at a news conference in Abuja