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Thoughts On 100 Days of Captivity and Need for Bipartisan Approach(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The pain and trauma of the over 200 schoolgirls who marked 100 days in Boko Haram captivity last week should spur the political class on to unified actions to secure their freedom rather than provide occasion for the dirty politics the world has watched in the last three months. Vincent Obia writes Nigeria marked a bitter anniversary last week. Hundred days ago on Wednesday, more than 200 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, in Borno State, were kidnapped by members of the Islamic terrorist sect, Boko Haram. They were taken from their hostels as they prepared to do the Senior Secondary School Examinations. Some of the girls have escaped from their captors, but more than 200 are still in captivity. The abduction of the schoolgirls on April 15 was the beginning of a terrible sore in the middle of Nigeria's security nightmare. Perhaps, more unfortunate is the fact that the Chibok incident has provided occasion for dirty partisanship at a time when the world expected the political class to stick together around an issue on which supporters of every political hue should make a common cause. The #BringBackOurGirls hash tag emerged as a rallying point for global empathy and pressure for the release of the Chibok girls. There is no denying the enormous role of the campaign in the spread of awareness about the kidnapping and sensitisation of the world to the plight of the girls and their families. But the Peoples Democratic Party-led federal government has looked on the #BringBackOurGirls campaign with a jaundiced eye from the beginning and decided to isolate it as a creation of the opposition. The isolation has since turned to hostility, especially, as the United States-based public relations firm, Burson Marsteller, alleged that the opposition All Progressives Congress was a co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement. Apparently, to take the shine off the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, a pro-federal government Release Our Girls Campaign Group has emerged. But it cannot be denied that the #BringBackOurGirls initiative has been an effective platform for galvanising global interest in the abduction of the Chibok girls and the insurgency in the country. The message and aim are fundamentally the safe return of the kidnapped girls and restoration of peace and security in the country. Even if the #BringBackOurGirls campaign is the brainchild of the opposition, it would be absurd to reason that the opposition also compelled or lobbied all the world leaders and citizens that signed on to the campaign to do so. The truth, clearly, is that the campaign is a viable and veritable crusade that the world embraced for its germane objective of freeing the girls held in captivity because they sought education. The federal government should have seen the movement in the light of that universal objective, as did many among civilised humanity, rather than put itself in opposition to the campaign and the campaigners. A leader of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign group and former Minister of Education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, was on July 21 briefly detained by security agents at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on her way to London. Ezekwesili was going for a scheduled appearance on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Hardtalk programme. She was later released after the news of her arrest t\ went viral on the social media. Ezekwesili's arrest was unnecessary. The PDP federal government and the opposition APC have wasted precious time in needless altercation and blame game over the Chibok abductions. While the federal government has obviously cared too much about small criticisms, the opposition, too, has sometimes veered from the core issue of how to rescue the kidnapped girls and used campaigns like #BringBackOurGirls to criticise the president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his government - at times unfairly. The needless din of altercation intensified last week following Wednesday's bomb attacks in Kaduna, on the 100th day of the Chibok abductions. The twin bomb attacks had targeted renowned Islamic cleric and Boko Haram critic, Sheik Dahiru Bauchi, and APC national leader and former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari. Both men escaped unhurt, but nearly 100 persons were killed in the attacks. Careless comments, accusations and counter accusations flew from the government and opposition camps. Though, the president was reported to have put a call through to Buhari on Wednesday evening to express his sympathy with the opposition leader. It was a commendable step. The government and the opposition must imbibe a bipartisan tradition to wage an effective campaign to rescue the over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, wage an effective war on terror, and restore the peace and security that the country is badly in need of. The 100 days of agony faced by the girls should spur the politicians on to act sincerely and selflessly. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |