Dapchi/Chibok: Buhari like Jonathan?

Abductions of secondary school girls in North eastern Nigeria by Boko Haram insurgents, occurred when a sitting president buttons up for second term in office. Do the abductions of Chibok and Dapchi school girls have political undertone? UJI ABDULLAHI ILIYASU asks
Boko Haram’s origin Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 began as an Islamic anti-corruption group, but became radicalised after the death of its founder. The sect’s original name is translated as “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s teachings and Jihad”.
Yusuf, who until his mysterious death while in police custody, led the sect in Maiduguri, Borno State, was more sympathetic to the poor in the North than the elites whom he accused of being corrupted by Western influence. Boko Haram’s increasing radicalisation led to a violent uprising in July 2009, in which its leader was killed in police custody.
The death of Boko Haram leader and many of his followers in the hands of security agency in 2009 angered the sect members who now united in 2011, under the fiery leadership of Abubakar Shekau with greater suicide missions. They turned, first against the Nigeria police personnel, whom they claimed, murdered their leader.
The successes they recorded by the suicide bombings of Nigeria Police Force Headquarters on June 16, 2011 and the United Nations’ building in Abuja on August 26, 2011, propelled them to go beyond mere anticorruption campaign to insurgency. Yusuf attracted followers from the reserved army of unemployed youths and it seems he saw an opportunity to exploit public outrage at corruption governance by linking it to the influence of western political architecture on the country.
It has been claimed that since 2009, Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 2.3 million from their homes in the Northeast. The sect was ranked as the world’s deadliest terror group by the Global Terrorism Index in 2015.
Sect’s resurgence The sect’s unexpected resurgence followed a mass prison break in September 2010, which witnessed an increasingly sophisticated missions, initially against civilian targets, like churches and mosques and market places, but progressed in 2011 to include government’s establishments.
The Modu Sheriff Connection Stephen Davis, a former Anglican minister, who had mediated between Boko Haram and the federal government many times, blamed politicians in the NorTheastern Nigeria for aiding and abetting the sect and using its members to intimidate their political opponents. Davis pointedly blamed the former governor of Borno state, Ali Modu Sheriff , whom he claimed, initially supported Boko Haram, but soon discarded them after realising his goal in the 2007 general elections. However, in a swift reaction to Davis’ claim, Sheriff said if Davis knew what he said, he would have given his report to the security agencies in Nigeria. “I was the first victim of Boko Haram in Borno State. In their first attack, they killed my brother, the same father and mother with me.
That was when they fought with the military in Borno. The first casualty was me. Then, they killed my cousin. They killed my candidate for governorship, they killed my party chairman. Two of them were direct relations of mine. Why did they do that? Because I made a law, prohibiting Boko Haram in the domain of Borno state,” Sheriff said.
The Chibok girls’ abduction In the night of April 14, 2014, a year to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election for a second term in offi ce, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno state.
The abduction of Chibok girls brought Boko Haram increased international media attention, and much of it focused on the pronouncements of the then American First Lady Michelle Obama Nobel Laueate for Peace and UN Ambassador, Malala Yousafzai, who personally visited Nigeria on the basis of Boko Haram on Jul 19, 2017, generated condemnation for President Goodluck Jonathan’s perceived incompetence, especially following allegations of state collusion from Amnesty International. The kidnap, more than corruption, some analysists believe, cost Jonathan the key to Aso Rock Villa in the 2015 general elections.
Link to politics The group has carried out mass abductions and suicide bombings in many parts of the north. The abduction and kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls in April 2014, was exactly a year to Jonathan’s re-election campaign. Similarly, in February 2018, a year to President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign for a second term, the sect again abducted and kidnapped another set of schools girls, this time from Dapchi, but in Yobe State.
The similarities in the view of many political analysts seems a clear link to political thuggery and blackmailing of a sitting president and the ruling party, PDP in 2014 and now the APC in 2018. Disillusion of Chibok girls One of the numerous political parties in Nigeria, the Labour Party (LP) said the Chibok school girls were never kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents, but were tools used to drag former President Goodluck Jonathan’s reputation on the mud.
“The All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government should not claim credit for what was packaged and pre-arranged to destroy the image and the administration of Goodluck Jonathan,” the national chairman of the party, Abdulkadir Abdulsalami said.
Dapchi girls and security lapses Gov Gaidam said to his sympathizers over the abduction of Dapchi girls in Damaturu, “I blame the whole attack on Dapchi on the military and the defence headquarters, which withdrew troops from Dapchi. The attack occurred barely a week after the military withdrew the soldiers from there… Before then, Dapchi has been peaceful, there was never such incident. But just a week after they withdrew the troops, Boko Haram came to attack the town.”
The blame game The APC and the main opposition PDP had traded blames over the Chibok school girls abduction. Th is blame game has continued over similar incident that took away 110 Dapchi school girls. Each party blamed the other of using the abducted school girls as campaign propaganda.
The PDP has accused the APC of security lapses that led to the capture of the Dapchi girls while the APC, in swift reaction, has blamed the PDP, which was in power in 2014, for playing politics and refusing to act immediately to the recover the Chibok girls from the insurgents. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said: “You and I know that they did not respond (to Dapchi girls) immediately. They were even in denial initially.
But the issue now is that they have not given a response to our question on why troops were withdrawn before the attacks took place. They have not given a response that is satisfactory to the majority of Nigerians.” Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on his part said, “To lose one set of girls to Boko Haram may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose another set looks like carelessness.
As an opposition party, the APC was vocal to the point of exploiting the issue of the Chibok girls’ kidnapping. “They criticised Jonathan’s government every step of the way, and some may even claim that they undermined the then government’s eff orts at resolving that unfortunate incident. So, it is rather surprising that a set of people who were so unsparing in their critique of the previous government would be in a situation whereby they have allowed these same terrorists to kidnap 110 girls.” However, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, said, “I don’t know about the APC playing politics with the lives of the Chibok girls because this is simply not true. Two, the fact that Dapchi girls’ kidnap incident happened was an embarrassment to all Nigerians, but the difference between the two is in the reaction of the government.”
Like Jonathan like Buhari Jonathan went to Kano during a campaign tour to welcome former governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau, who had defected to the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when Nyanya, an FCT suburb, was yet to wake up from its shock from the Boko Haram’s twin bomb blasts which consumed the lives of about 88 innocent Nigerians on April 14, 2014. Th is was on the heels of the abduction of 276 girls from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state. Many Nigerians accused him of insensitivity to these national tragedies, a ready-made political propaganda in the hands of the opposition parties, especially the teething All Progressives Congress (APC).
He failed in the 2015 general election, which ushered in the opposition party led by Muhammadu Buhari, who was sold to Nigerian electorate largely for his perhaps, capability to halt the Boko Haram’s expansionist campaign and to fi ght corruption; all subsumed on the end Boko Haram campaign agenda. Like Jonathan, President Muhammadu Buhari went to Kano to celebrate the wedding of Fatima, daughter of Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano state, and Idris, the son of Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo state governor on March 3, 2018 when Zamfara, Taraba and Benue were mourning their dead from unprovoked attacks from suspected herders, even as parents of girls from Government Science and Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe state, were still smarting under the pain of their daughters’ abduction by Boko Haram insurgents.
Who is behind scene? Now the question is, who is behind these two important attacks on Nigeria’s tomorrow’s mothers? In Chibok, Jonathan government blamed people in the opposition. In Dapchi, the PDP has blamed the APC for security lapses. Is it the politicians or the BBOG girls group, who it was alleged, have found gainful activism and international media attention in the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign? Will there be another group of agitators for Dapchi girls or BBOG should take the campaign rights?