Like the Ajaokuta Steel Mill, Dapchi Girls, Chibok School Girls, and Boko Haram insurgency are conduits for appropriating and sharing your wealth, our wealth. The trend is an intractable national security nightmare, and we are simply in denial of its hold on our national treasury. Because the argument for the parting of funds is logically and legally persuasive - quid pro quo. Yes, we gave them this and that millions of Dollars, and the Kidnappers kindly release some of the kidnapped Girls. Hogwash, but we all hail.
For instance, how long would you need to invade a Technical College in the age of the Internet and Smart Phone and ferry away 105 technology-savvy school girls to an unknown destination, without being sighted, traced or over-powered? From an objective perspective, you don't need one or two or three vehicles to accomplish that feat. You would need a fleet.
And like the Chibok Girls and the Millions of Naira spent on Ajaokuta Steel Mill for more than thirty years, without a steel been milled, the Dapchi Girls disappeared into the thin air, without a trace. Sad to say, it is de javu all over again.
Today, President Buhari and his Security Advisers are under no compulsion to brief Nigerians on who exactly benefited from the Millions of Dollars and Pounds allegedly exchanged to secure the release of some of the Chibok Girls. Very soon, your money, our money will start vanishing from our treasury to unknown hands to secure the release of the Dapchi School Girls. A shame of a nation, no doubt.
According to Eze Onyekpere of the Punch Newspaper of February 26, 2018, "Media reports indicate that the insurgents operated for hours before eventually retreating. Is it possible that the residents of the town did not alert and inform the security agencies that an attack was ongoing in their town? What is the distance between the nearest army garrison or security post with a good number of armed men and Dapchi, where this kidnap took place? If it is one to two hours’ drive, why are there no media reports of the insurgents being given a hot chase? To load 105 girls into vehicles and take them away is not like loading goods in a pick-up and driving away. So, no one saw the direction they headed and they disappeared into thin air. Again, over five days after, no one seems to have a clue about where the girls were taken to. Even the locals did not see any strange movement of human beings after the attack? Again, if soldiers that reported to the scene after the attack had been told the direction that the insurgents left for, why is there no news of their interception so many days after?" Nigerians deserve to know the answers to these questions.
The IGP and the Security Adviser to the President are individually and collectively a huge embarrassment to this administration. Unfortunately, we have a President whose understanding of the concept of accountability is superficial and grossly embellished. Please, stay tuned for my series on Defining Restructuring/True Federalism.
