School of Communication & Media
Kennesaw State University
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
Dear Farooq:
As usual, very courageous and poignant column piece.
May I invite you to ponder on the following points:
1. Try moving your goods and family from Onitsha to Owerri and you'd have to pass at least two military and police checkpoints searching, extorting, and slowing you down every kilometer in a zone where absolute peace has reigned for over 48 years. But Boko Haram allegedly moved 110 secondary school girls from Dapchi to God-knows-where and never encountered a single army checkpoint in a war-ravaged volatile region?
There's 82 DIV in Enugu; Garrison DIV in Enugu; Air Force in Enugu; army Brigades in Obinze, Owerri; Ohafia, Abia State; battalions in Asa, near Aba, Onitsha, Awka, Ovim, Awgwu; and countless Mobile Response Units in pretty much every local council in the South East -- commanded by Northerners, especially Fulani. In fact, there's hardly any Igbo at the rank of Major or above or equivalents in the army or any the Services and security agencies (Police, DSS, NSDC, FRSC) in the zone. a Division is about 25,000 troops , a Brigade is abut 15,000; while a battalion ranges from about 750 -1,500 men and women.
2. Now, consider the logistical nightmare of moving 110 secondary school girls on excursion from Dapchi to, say, Bauchi in peace time. Imagine the chaos that should arise from moving 110 secondary school girls--many of whom had only their wrappers on or were completely naked save their undies because of the atrocious heat in Dapchi--for hundreds of miles and no one, not even a hunter, spotted them? Perhaps the nine trucks and about a dozen utility vehicles that conveyed them flew. Otherwise, how do you move that number of vehicles in the scrubland of Borno and they didn't leave any tire marks on the ground?
3. Perhaps, Boko Haram now operates like Uber drivers: they pick up and drop off passengers (abductees) after being paid?
4. How do you keep 110 secondary school girls clean in their uniforms, no matter the color, for at least a month? May be Boko Haram supplied the girls with sanitary pads and other feminine hygiene products, toilet soaps and detergents for a month from the Shop Rite Mall in Sambisa Forest Plaza?
5. Perhaps, the NNPC Mega-Station at Sambisa Forest supplied gasoline to fuel the nine lorries and over a dozen or so other service vehicles that picked up and drooped off the hapless school girls?
6. Where do you get enough food for three square meals daily and water for 110 teenagers for over a month (for laundry, drinking, washing, cooking, etc.) in the middle of the dry and devilishly hot scrubland? Perhaps, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation dug boreholes for them in the forest? Can you imagine how many cooking points they would have needed? Did they cook with wood? If so, why didn't the Nigerian Air Force jets see the smoke? If you lived in the dormitory in secondary school, I'm sure you'll recall how orderly meal times in the "camp' would be for the girls and their abductors!
7. Did you see all the Ghana Must Go bags the girls allegedly had when Boko Haram dropped them off? Perhaps, the abductors allowed them time to take their wardrobe and other personal effects with them before driving off a month ago? Or, better still, they did a detour to the Mall to stock on supplies?
8. "... the point being made is that Boko Haram is now better financed by the Nigerian government than our military is." -- Farooq Kperogi.
You just scratched the surface. Even where there is equipment and funding, there may not be the will to use them or to fight. I'll give you two foods for thought:
(a) Why has the Nigerian military continued to send dozens of its One-Star and Two-Star officers to the Executive Management Course at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard at the cost of several war materielle per year? These are officers who have all passed their Strategic Studies and Management of Higher Defense courses (otherwise they won't be Generals) and have held several command positions--and generally have less than two years to pull out of the Service. Each officer is entitled to business-class return ticket and at least $7,000 travel advance in foreign exchange.
(b) In January 2015, a South African defense firm supplied a total of 23 REVA mine resistant armored personnel (MRAP) vehicles to the Nigerian Army which were deployed to the operational area of Maiduguri. These consisted of 22 REVA III models and 1 x REVA V ambulance. Between July 2016 and January 2017, only about half of the 23 vehicles or even less were still operational, A few of the broken down vehicles have been cannibalized and their parts used to repair the others--using local technicians who have no training on the REVA MRAPs. However, the total cost of repairing the REVA MRAPs is about $1.7m, which could be sourced from what is currently being blown in the two-week "executive management" courses at Harvard so that folks can claim Harvard Alumni status. It costs not less than N30m to conduct the Graduation and Passing Out Parade at NDA, Kaduna! Same with each of the two courses (Junior Staff and Senior Staff courses) at Jaji and at the National Defense College, Abuja. The politics and cronyism currently going about repairing the MRAPs will make you puke.
So, Nigeria is a country whose many ironies have now assumed even more monstrous proportions to the peril of all of us. Sadly, we were warned but we refused to listen.
Peace as always!
Okey
On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 11:29 AM, Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com> wrote:
--Mixed Feelings about the Release of the Dapchi Schoolgirls
By Farooq Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
I am the father of three daughters, one of whom is a teenager. If I were to live in Dapchi, my daughter would attend the school the Dapchi girls were abducted from. So I can't imagine the unspeakable horrors the parents of the abducted girls lived with. The parent in me is at once ecstatic over the release of the girls and distraught over the death of five of them and the continued captivity of one of them.
More than that, though, I am also worried that while no amount of money is too big to secure the release of the girls, the financial negotiations that led to their release would strengthen Boko Haram to launch more daring abductions of schoolgirls. It's not a question of if; it's a question of when. This is a vicious cycle.
After the usual, predictable protestations from government officials to the effect that no ransom had been paid to the terrorists to secure the release of the girls, SaharaReporters disclosed on Wednesday that five million euros had been paid to the Al-Barnawi faction of Boko Haram. "But a source who also participated in the negotiations with Boko Haram that led to release of over 80 Chibok girls in 2017 told SaharaReporters that the federal government not only made the ransom payment of five million euros to the insurgents," the paper wrote, adding that government "also exchanged some Boko Haram prisoners in return for the Dapchi girls."
It's easy to dismiss this as speculative or even made-up, but examples from the immediate past should give us cause for pause. For instance, the government had denied paying any money to the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram for the release of 80 Chibok girls, but Wall Street Journal's explosive and exhaustive report of December 24, 2017 proved beyond all shadows of doubt that "Nigeria paid a secret ransom of €3 million to free some of the kidnapped schoolgirls." Three million euros adds up to nearly 1.5 billion naira.
In another case, the BBC reported that the government paid a hefty ransom to Boko Haram. "The ransom was €2m. Boko Haram asked for euros. They chose the suspects and gave us the list of girls who would be freed," BBC quoted a source as confiding in them.
It's pointless recounting all the numerous credible revelations of ransom payments to Boko Haram by the government because it was the subject of my column two weeks ago, but the point being made is that Boko Haram is now better financed by the Nigerian government than our military is. And, as sure as tomorrow's date, the terrorist group will continue to use the war chest handed to them by our government to unleash more terror, abduct more girls, and earn more money. It has become a profitable racket.
While it's hard to make the case that money shouldn't be paid to secure the release scared, innocent girls, it's also good to remember that the money paid to secure the release of some girls will be used to abduct other girls and inflict harm on others. So ransom payment isn't a sustainable strategy. Any country that purchases its peace will perpetually be indebted to war.
But more than that, Boko Haram is now winning the ideational war. For instance, reports said that when members of the group returned the Dapchi girls, they stayed for a bit and preached against girl-child education. They told the girls to never go to school again or risk abduction. In a region that desperately needs education, especially girl-child education, we've been set back by probably five decades. No responsible parents will send their daughters to school again. The girls' life is infinitely more important than their education.
Similarly, Boko Haram is clearly now being unwittingly lionized, deodorized, decriminalized, and mainstreamed by the government. The photos and videos shared by the Daily Nigerian online newspaper of jubilant crowds cheering Boko Haram terrorists in Dapchi while the group freely hoists its flag is disconcerting. The terrorist group isn't just being financed by the Buhari government through handsome ransom payments; it is also being unintentionally glamorized. There is no bigger recruitment tool for the group than this. It's a loud message that crime does pay.
In my April 13, 2013 column titled "Amnesty for Boko Haram or Pampering of Mass Murderers?" where I vigorously opposed calls by northern elders for the granting of "amnesty" to Boko Haram, I offered a short and long-term solution to the Boko Haram menace:
"What 'northern elders' need to do, if they are REALLY interested in solving the Boko Haram problem, is help mobilize ideational resources to defeat the ideology that gives birth to and sustains groups like Boko Haram," I wrote. "This is a long-term strategic initiative that will not yield immediate results, but that is worthwhile nonetheless. In the short-run, our security agencies need to be equipped with 21st century intelligence-gathering capabilities to confront and defeat these primitive monsters of depravity that have made life miserable for millions of innocent people."
I still stand by this.
Elements of successful nations
Every modern, successful nation must have five core elements:
(1) economic justice so that even the weakest and the most vulnerable stratum of the society can live, not just survive
(2) social justice so that accidents of birth, geography, and religious beliefs aren't permanent barriers to the prospects of upward social and economic mobility
(3) a responsible and sincere government that serves the people and not the other way round
(4) a critical and watchful media system that acts as the watchdog of the government and not the lapdog of the temporary occupants of power
(5) an educated, vigilant, and engaged citizenry who are not susceptible to cheap elite manipulation and narrow primordial loyalties.
A nation that has only the first two elements is a fragile nation. A nation with just one of these elements has no reason to exist. And a nation with not a single one of these five core elements is Nigeria.
Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.Associate ProfessorJournalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & MediaSocial Science BuildingRoom 5092 MD 2207402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.comTwitter: @farooqkperogAuthor of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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