NewsRescue
According to an article in the Punch of August 11th, the Alhaji Sule Maitama-led Northern Elders Forum, NEF has “given the president of Nigeria till October to recover the abducted 234 Chibok girls or forget his 2015 re-election bid.”
The position of the NEF is worrying to say the least. It is reasonable to say that if this was any other nation, the only call will be for the president’s unreserved urgent resignation. Many more potent leaders have resigned for 100-fold more trivial crimes in nations across the world. It therefore is seriously distressing that after five years of unabated terror; after five years through which not a single sponsor of terror was arrested by the Jonathan administration; after five years through which up to 100,000 northern based Nigerians have been killed in violence and over four million mostly northern farmers have been displaced; after five years in which Benue farmers have been massacred with ease; after five years during which billions in property, livestock and businesses have freely been destroyed in unchecked terror; after five years during which the economy of Nigeria and the north in particular has been irreversibly destroyed along with hope for the youth; after five years during which corruption has been the order of the day in Nigeria to tunes of billions of dollars looted by the administration; after five years during which Bayelsa state has secured its spot as the most polluted land on the entire planet; after five years in which Nigeria has become the worst nation for dangerous high sea piracy in the world…. this list can go on indefinitely: the NEF figures that the rescuing of what is left of the eternally cheated, deprived and abandoned girls is an important criteria and condition for determining not only Jonathan staying in power another day, but his re-electability.
Contrast this to the position of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, the minute in August of 2012 they simply heard the president of Nigeria state that “Boko Haram were like his siblings and this is why he deals with them with a soft approach, “kid gloves.” CAN immediately voted no-confidence and called for his resignation.
By the above statement, the NEF has proven disconnect with the sufferings of Nigerian people. The NEF has proven lack of sensitivity to the plight of the Chibok familes and the abducted girls. The NEF has proven that it does not understand or relate to the true degree and extent of irrecoverable damage from the permitted Boko Haram terror to Nigeria and the north in particular for centuries to come. The NEF has turned a blind eye to the prevailing feature of Boko Haram terror, the group being constantly armed and equipped with weapons and military tanks and APC’s directly from the nation’s army, under Jonathan and his service chiefs. The NEF is proving by such approval of the state of affairs in Nigeria thus–far, that the hundreds who die every day in the northeast, killed with bullets from Nigeria’s official military cache, procured with the nation’s oil money which are now in the hands of Boko Haram; killed with military tanks bought with Nigeria’s wealth, which have been transferred to Boko Haram by the corrupt, insensitive and clueless actions of the current administration, are of no concern to them. The NEF does not believe in accountability and justice for past crimes, by making such a submission. The NEF does not hold the president to account for eating with and protecting the sponsors of terror, while hundreds of thousands of Nigerian poor masses are killed every day.
We believe that the only call from any responsible Nigerian and foreign organization at this time that Nigeria has become one of the most terrorized and robbed nations on the planet, now exporting terror to its neighbors, is the call for the immediate resignation and/or impeachment of the leadership of Nigeria. Anything short of this is tantamount to a betrayal of the people served and represented. Nigeria is not catching up as it faces more unpredictable challenges like Ebola. We need a leadership that connects with the precarious, desperate plight of the ordinary, ‘mere’ masses.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian