Some parents whose daughters were among those abducted in April by the Islamist Boko Haram sect in Chibok, Borno State, have lashed out at the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), accusing the group of maliciously holding their daughters for political reasons.
They were reacting to statement credited to the forum giving President Goodluck Jonathan October ultimatum to bring back the abducted Chibok girls and end the scourge of Boko Haram or forget his 2015 second term ambition.
The forum had on August 11, 2014 in Kaduna through two of its members, Solomon Dalung, and Hakeem Baba-Ahmed given the President an ultimatum to provide the Chibok girls or forget his second term ambition in 2015.
The parents accused the Northern elders of creating the situation that gave rise to insurgency in the area in the first place.
Enoch Mark, whose two of his daughters are among the girls currently in the net of the insurgents, told BD SUNDAY that the NEF should be held responsible for the killings in some parts of the north for playing politics with the lives of millions of innocent Nigerians.
He said the NEF were using Boko Haram to destabilise President Jonathan-led government because they (NEF) never wanted him (Jonathan) in power in the first instance.
“I am afraid that our northern politicians are the ones who abducted our daughters. It seems to me that they are trying to defame the character of President Jonathan and that is why they kept our girls somewhere”, he alleged.
Enoch, a northerner himself, noted that in the history of Nigeria as a nation, there was what was known then as “Kaduna Mafia” most of whom he said constitute northerners who had always brought confusion through acts of terror to destabilise any government they were not in support of.
“From that ‘Kaduna Mafia’ it changed to what they call “The Maitatsine”. “The Maitatsine” didn’t take long before it was cleared by the General Muhammadu Buhari military regime. It has changed now to be Boko Haram; it is the same movement. Out of 14 leaders that have ruled Nigeria, nine of them are northerners! What have they done for northerners? They are only trying to pollute the minds of ordinary northerners; telling them in a foolish way that Jonathan does not know how to rule. They attacked Chibok because we voted for Jonathan. We voted 100% for Jonathan! That is why they are playing with our daughters! They are still the ones misleading the President by not telling him the actual truth on ground here. The President should be courageous. He should not be deterred by this fierce opposition. We are counting on him to rescue our daughters. They are playing with our lives! The Northern Elders in Nigeria today are the ones who caused this problem for us! They are trying to destroy or spoil the image of the leadership of President Jonathan! There is no leader who would be happy to see that his leadership is not going well. They feed the President with wrong information. They don’t tell him the actual thing which is happening here! He gave them billions of naira and they don’t do anything with it! They are trading with our lives”, he said.
“Can you imagine, Shekua, telling the whole world that our daughters would be sold for 40 France Cefer; which is like 50 kobo per person! And no challenge, government is doing nothing; yet, they said they know where the insurgents are! If the CDS knows where our daughters are, please tell me who is responsible to rescue them?”he further observed.
He said further that, the Nigerian military was not a weak institution but that something was wrong somewhere which every sincere Nigerian must be curious about.
“There is something behind the soldiers not being able to perform. I am afraid of our leaders- including the leadership of the military. In the daytime, they will tell you they are Nigerian Army; but in the night, I don’t believe they are still Nigerian soldiers! A soldier once came to me for prayers and said, ‘Sir, please, pray for me; I don’t know how Nigeria would be in the near future because Nigerian Army is divided into two! Even some of us soldiers are not safe because we don’t know who are against us within the military. If we go for operation, a man in uniform like you is the one to kill us. Now they work for money. Some of the soldiers are working together with Boko Haram,” he said.
“I have two daughters in Boko Haram’s Sambisa forest-one is biological and the other adopted. Since then, we have been hearing in the media that the government is still struggling to do something but to tell the actual facts; I am not seeing anything of that kind. Even the Chief of Defense Staff announced in the media that he knows where our girls are. It was very painful to me, to hear a Security Chief, announcing to the world that he knows where our daughters are! Today, it is over four months and there is no positive news from the Federal Government about our daughters! I am even ashamed to call myself a Nigerian. I was part of the parents who were in Abuja to see Mr. President. The president promised us that our girls would be rescued and brought to us. Though, he didn’t tell us how soon this would be, up till now our girls are yet to be rescued according to the president’s word. We don’t know whether we will see them again or this is the end,” Enoch said.
He did not also spare the Federal legislators whom he said have reneged in their threats of ultimatum to compel security heads in the country to resign if they failed to rescue the girls.
“Have our girls been brought back? Has anyone resigned? The Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives should resign too! There is no need calling them ‘lawmakers,’ after all there is no law! Is it not something shameful to our legislators to issue a threat they cannot carry out? If a senator is coming here now for example, you will see over fifty vans! Whereas the day our daughters were abducted there were only 16 soldiers on ground! They are there serving themselves and claim to be legislating for the people”, he said.
Parents of the missing Chibok girls waiting to see if there would be light at the end of the extremely dark tunnel
He said almost every night Chibokans would run to the bush for their lives because of the consistent threats by the insurgents to attack the village again. “Today, I counted more than ten villages around Chibok that Boko Haram has attacked consecutively without any challenge from the military men. To me, I don’t believe we have soldiers in Nigeria. Soldiers are divided into two: parts of the soldiers are really Boko Haram,” he alleged.
He said a Christian group known as The Voice of Martyrs had really been helpful to Chibokans lately by providing relief materials. “They have been coming here to deliver relief materials to us. Sometime ago they gave each parent N5, 000 each. As I talk to you now, we are expecting them to bring foodstuffs here”.
Enoch, who confirmed to BD SUNDAY that of a truth, the insurgents were now in control of Gwaza Local Government, lamented that the insurgents were growing more and more by the day.
“Now they have declared Gwoza Local Government as their territory. They are also in charge of about 6 or 7 other LGs. Though, the picture they posted doesn’t seems to be Gwoza but I can assure you that the insurgents are in charge of the L.G. some of the residents fled to other villages including Chibok”, he said.
He said he found it difficult to believe that, the soldiers could do nothing on Monday June 9 2014 when the insurgents went to a village not far from Chibok at about 8:pm; killed two residents, set the whole village ablaze and carried away all the belongings of the residents.
“We call on the Military men; they were telling us that they don’t go out in the night! In Mandagali, another village not far from Chibok, the insurgents were there for three hours without any attempt from the Military. We have trained soldiers! We have able men among the soldiers but the problem is from above! The soldiers on ground are not been supply with the right weapons! They don’t pay them their allowances; is almost as if the ‘ogas at the top’ whenever they post soldiers here, they are saying to them, ‘go and die’. That is why they are struggling to fight with the insurgents. Whenever we hear a gunshot, we and the soldiers would be running for cover! I don’t blame them at all! If I was in their shoe, I will runaway too because I am not equip”, he said.
He said people who were saying no girls were abducted in Chibok were confused and do not know what they are talking about. According to him, about 530 girls including 70 boys were registered candidates for the exams; ten of the girls took excuse and went for a marriage ceremony in a nearby village.
“I am a pastor, a community leader and a victim as well. Two of my daughters were abducted. Is very painful when I hear people saying no girls are missing. What do we stand to gain by telling the world our daughters are missing? Shekau has told the world he has our girls. Eleven days after the Chibok School girls were abducted, the insurgents were still in the area (not more than 25 kilometers) with the girls without any attempt from the Military to rescue the girls until they (BH) finally entered Sambisa forest; where it is widely believe the girls are still being held.
“This is a dirty slap on Nigerians. Such a thing has never happen in the world; but it happened in Nigeria, in the time of President Jonathan. I really feel very sorry for him; I don’t know how the President feels about all these! They said that they don’t want to use force; maybe they are doing something but the parents of the girls must not be left in the dark! The mother of one of the abductees just died recently because she couldn’t wait anymore! Some are critically ill as I speak with you now,” he lamented.
Another parent who did not want his name mentioned for fear of been victimize, said the NEF has not really contributed anything to the efforts of well meaning Nigerians to have the girls rescued and brought back to their parents other than issue unguided utterances in its desperate attempt to get power.
The parent, who also had visited the president in Abuja with other parents of the Chibok missing school girls, said the body language of the NEF portray the forum as association of elders who are bend on fomenting trouble with the Jonathan led government for its interest.
“My problem is that: the NEF would on its usual manner, speak as if they are speaking for the whole northerners! It is the failure of NEF that has brought us to where we are now; and only the NEF can fix this mess. If they are really elders as they claim, they should be able to solve the problem on their own backyard”, he said.
According to him, Chibok residents were also dissatisfied with the way Military officials handled security issue in the area during and after the attack.
“None of us here in Chibok believe in the Military anymore! Anyone who trusts in the Military here does so at his own peril! Our defense is only in God! It will be outright foolishness for us to rely on few soldiers who will also run for cover once Boko Haram shows up here! My wife use to be fat, now she has slim down by force because of the abduction of her daughter. She doesn’t eat well! How can a mother joyfully eat when her daughter is been held captive in the bush? If the girls were daughters of government officials would they have waited this long to rescue them? It is slap on the Military”, he said angrily.
As at the time of filing in this report, Solomon Dalung, a member of the NEF could not be reach. He had also yet to reply message sent to his Facebook inbox.
But the President of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) Balarabe Musa defended the NEF, saying the blame on the mysterious missing Chibok girls should be laid on Goodluck Jonathan’s doorstep since he is the president of the country.
The former governor of Kaduna state told BD SUNDAY on the telephone that as president, President Jonathan was invested with a lot of powers to deal with any issue in order to move the country foreword.
He said: “Even though I am not a member of NEF because I don’t associate with any sectional group, I know there is nothing they can do about Boko Haram. It is beyond everybody. Only the government can do something about the insurgents. To be sincere, the president has neglected his responsibility. He has been taken over by the problem. We, who are patriotic Nigerians, would rather blame Jonathan, not the NEF. If somebody within Jonathan’s cabinet is feeding the insurgents with information of the proceedings of Executive Council Meetings, it is the duty of the president to find who the person is and fired such fellow from his cabinet. The President is the Commander in Chief and he can remove anybody; and when he fails to do so, it can be assume that he is part of the whole thing”, he said.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
