There is more to Bring Back

The past one month has been pretty much historic. We have heard about disasters (Natural and or Artificial) resulting in the death of citizens in hundreds. Kidnapping of about 300 girls is however novel. I must confess my initial reservations about the veracity of the news when it first made headlines. Such sheer incredibility

You have to pardon my humble self, Osita Iheme, Patience Jonathan, Asari Dokubo, Charles Novia and perhaps a few others with misgivings. If i watched a film and one of the scenes suggest the kidnapping of 300girls in a secondary school in the story line, i would simply shrug it off as unobtainable. So, imagine my thoughts when it was reported in main stream media.

While i have moved on to believe the kidnap incident and joined the campaign to #bringbackourgirls, i must quickly express dissimilarities that lies in the seeming convergence of opinion held by myself and Patience Jonathan.

Before now,i have held the view that we have a poor security and intelligence gathering system. The Chibok incident suggests a nonexistent one. For Patience and Dokubo, it is an attempt by APC to discredit the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Someone wrote about this leadership;

Blame Opposition
Blame Muslims
Blame the northerners
Blame the parents
Blame the journalists that didn't support government propaganda
Blame Buhari
Blame the school principal
Blame the state Governor
BLAME CNN / Isha Sesay

Blame everyone except the people that control the resources and were elected to resolve issues like this. Yes, I am talking about the FG

The words could not have been truer. Except that it would sound foolish, Doyin Okupe and Labaran Maku would have accused APC leadership of bribing Hilary Clinton and John Maccain to hurl uncomplimentary remarks about the 'transformation government'

While President Jonathan MAY NOT have masterminded the kidnapping of the girls, his body language is uninspiring, insensitive and regrettable. His army of image makers must be having a hard time defending his actions. More like inaction.

The chibok incident remains a disaster. An avoidable one. Yet it has thrown some positives. The world stood as one in defiance of racism and other dividing factors to support Nigerians in this trying time. It is trying not just because our girls are in danger for over a month but because we have a government that is not 'all that interested' in the kidnap incident. It is either there are no missing girls or there is an exaggeration. Remember there is a difference between corruption and mere theft.

A cerebral journalist wrote: Somewhere between being unwilling and being incapable, we know the Nigerian Government / military / authorities will not bring back our girls. There are those within the government who either do not believe the abductions took place, or who believe it was staged by the enemies of the President and his government to cause embarrassment on the eve of the World Economic Forum. Watch Jonathan’s body language and see clearly a man who thinks there’s some mischievous and malevolent force at work, seeking to embarrass him in front of the world. We need to understand the man we elected to rule us. This for him is not really about missing girls; it’s about people out to undermine his government. Every incident, every criticism, is linked to an opposition that wants to bring the government down. This is a President who has said it again and again that #OccupyNigeria only happened because people in Lagos were paid and fed to protest against him. He genuinely believes it, and seems to believe the same about everything else: From the unaccounted-for billions of dollars in oil funds to the missing girls – these are all grand conspiracies against his government. Is that the man you expect to bring back our girls?

Another concerned Nigerian opined as thus:The President is nearing the end of his first term but there are still questions as to if we have a functional security system. What did he spend his first term tackling? In other countries, when officials can’t tackle emergencies such as this as quickly as possible, they resign. If our President will not resign, can he please do us the favour of not running for second term?

Our corrupt leaders are thriving on our political apathy to alter election outcomes. I suspect this will not be the same again.
There is an unprecedented level of political consciousness cutting across all Nigerians. We must keep the tempo. No longer shall we be swayed by 'stories that touch'. A lot of people did not have shoes growing up.

I do hope the Nigerian government is not joining the campaign to bring back our girls because our tweets and post is directed at them.

The president, commander in chief of the Nigerian armed forces, has cancelled his planned visit to Chibok. Obviously, out of security concerns. Mr Abati can tweet all he wants, we know he is only doing his job. One that requires a dead conscience.

As we relentlessly press home our non negotiable demand for this government to take responsibility, for once, let it be known that we have a lot to bring back.

I can only ask God for forgiveness on behalf of myself and Nigerians for thinking Yaradua's leadership was bad. Now, we know better. We called him a sick man. But aren't we all inherently sick people except for those who enjoy God's grace to appear healthy? Yaradua reduced fuel price, twice. Another President told us of how the country will collapse if subsidy subsisted.

We must bring back sanity to the land. At the moment we are a miserable joke. After the expiration of this administration by May 29, Nigeria will be in dire need of re-branding.

We must bring back rule of law

We must 'rebase' mere theft of money as corruption.

We must bring back the missing billions of dollars

we must bring back respect to Nigeria

for now, let them #bringbackourgirls!