Boko Haram is still believed to be holding about 230 school girls they had allegedly abducted from a boarding school in Nigeria since April 14 and the Nigerian officials could not secure release for the girls. “Bring Back Our Girls” has become the rallying cry amid the ongoing global ‘social media march’ as well as street demonstrations in Nigeria and Nigerian embassies abroad.
In a chat with The Standard yesterday, Madi Jobarteh, the deputy executive director of Tango, the umbrella body of non-governmental organisations in The Gambia, said: “I think this case has proven once more the lack of good leadership and the weak capacity of African governments that I always lament. It is a shame that the Nigerian government would be sitting down as if they do not realise their obligation to their people. How can the government claim they cannot contain this terrorist group despite the might of the Nigerian intelligence, army, navy and air force with the availability of drones and other modern tools? Nigeria has the resources yet the government is failing to deploy the full extent of those resources.”
The Gambian rights activist who is currently in Nigeria to lend support to the campaign for the release of the girls added: “Why are they not deploying 100,000 troops in the north? In fact, after the February massacre at a college, they had information that Boko Haram will attack again. So why are they waiting for another attack to happen without preparing? To add insult to injury, the government is not even making daily statements, even if it is false, to citizens to inform them of developments. But again what is evident is that Boko Haram or the Niger Delta crises are all indicative of the bad governance and weak leadership in that so-called giant of Africa since independence. Our human rights network met the chief of defence staff of Nigeria and all they get is a PowerPoint presentation about what the army intends to do.”
By Lamin Njie
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