HOPING and waiting, Oscar Wilde once wrote, could turn the wisest of men into a fool. In the absence of any concrete assur­ance from those whose duty it is to inspire hope in the tragic circumstance of Chibok, a name that has now become emblematic of our country’s fight against the Boko Haram insurgency, Nigerians had begun to look foolish as they continued in their extreme hope that, one day, our girls would return home; safe.

Really, there is nothing evil in hoping, af­ter all, when there is hope, there is hope. But despondency sets in when eminent persons like former President Olusegun Obasanjo wakes up one day and yanks off whatever straw of hope Nigerians are clutching to by ruling that the girls are gone forever. In the spirit of hope, you may fault him but you can’t blame him. As a General, he is a veteran of many wars, conventional and unconventional. As a General, he has seen the best and worst of humans. He knows how desperately wick­ed the heart of man can be. Aside all these, as President, his administration had battled Boko Haram, even if the insurgency was at its infancy then. Everything added up, Obasanjo seems to be on solid ground in making that declaration.

What with the horrifying manner the insurgents have been turning girls into bombs, and lacing kids with explosive belts? This terrifying trend is yet to abate. Still, that hasn’t taken into account the widespread fear that most of the girls, if they haven’t been turned into human bombs already, or sold into slavery, would have been routinely raped and terribly de­humanised. Ask girls who have escaped from similar horror in other terror spots like Syria and Iraq, and you would under­stand Obasanjo’s pessimism.

But as the grieving mothers continue to roll in the gutter of extreme miseries over their missing girls, some of them could still afford to look at the stars, in the extreme hope that their daughters will return to them; one day; safe and sane.

They came closer to that day on Wednes­day, April 13, 2016. On that day, the eve of the second anniversary of the abduction of Chibok 279 (60 later escaped), CNN, the cable TV giant, gave the world the last gift that could be given to man on matters like this: hope. In a report that initially shocked, then pleasured the world, CNN gave an exclusive report, backed by an ex­clusive video, that all is not lost after all; that our girls may still be alive and could be found and be rescued.

In the ground-breaking report, titled, The Proof of Life, 15 robust-looking girls were shown, lined against a yellow wall, being interviewed by a male voice. In the video, purportedly shot last Christmas, shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari de­clared Boko Haram, “technically defeat­ed”, a Boko Haram spokesman was heard asking the girls some scanty questions. Pedestrian, yet valuable, the questions ran like this: ‘What is your name?’ ‘Was that your name at school?’ ‘Where were you taken from?’

To shut the mouths of cynics, and put the matter beyond controversy, CNN took its The Proof of Life video to some mothers they had interviewed two years ago. They were inconsolable as one of them identi­fied her now 17-year-old daughter, Saratu. They wept. The two-minute clip ended with a brief assurance from one of the girls, Naomi Zakaria, who said: “I am speaking on December 25, 2015, on behalf of all the Chibok girls, and we are all well.”

RESPONSE

Government’s response to the propagan­da video was carefully calibrated by Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, who confirmed that that the administration was in possession of the video, and was study­ing it. But he would not be drawn into making commitments because he would not like to “give false hope.” If the Minis­ter held back on making specific comment or commitment on the fate of the girls, he somewhat admitted that the administration was either talking with Boko Haram or was not averse to doing so. Without doubt, the clip is one of the group’s bargaining chips. And by making it available to the public, and the administration, Boko Haram was trying to confirm that government was al­ready negotiating with it. They also tried to give the impression that they had acted in ‘good’ faith. That was why they carefully selected the girls, made them look robust and relaxed, and ensured they didn’t betray any emotional trauma or pressure. Indeed, the 15 girls appeared as if they had been specially fattened for that propaganda ex­hibition.

Government’s muffled tone on the video is understandable. So was Lai Moham­med’s ‘diplomacy’ during his engagement with CNN. In the past, administration of­ficials had made categorical statements on some roiling issues, and they had all gone burst. So, wisdom dictates caution. And the Minister was extremely cautious dur­ing the interview.

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However, the snag is: the Chibok 219 mums are so overwhelmed by a deep sense of loss that they would desperately like to be relieved of that unwholesome burden at the shortest time possible. To them, two years without their girls is hotter than hell. Within this period, they have had to clutch at extreme hope in their extreme misery to maintain their sanity. They need to be relieved of the gruelling uncertainty they have been dealing with in the last two years. They need government to free them of the overwhelming sense of loss they have sunken. In a nutshell, they want action; any action that would return their daughters to them, safe.

BETWEEN BUHARI AND CHIBOK

Of a truth, no sane Nigerian can accuse President Muhammadu Buhari and his team of inaction or foot-dragging. A lot has changed since the President took power, last May. At the risk of sounding patronis­ing, I daresay that the administration has done a lot more, in one year, than President Goodluck Jonathan did in all of the six years he held sway in Aso Rock. Perhaps, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this dire strait had the Jonathan Administration not slumbered while a ferocious fire raged on its roof.

As experts in counter-terrorism posit, the earliest stages of the capture of Chibok 219 offered the best opportunity for their res­cue. Each day lost brings fresh complica­tions and shifts the solution some notches. At the initial stage, and despite overwhelm­ing evidence, the Jonathan Administration was reluctant to believe that such a huge population of girls could be abducted with­out anyone seeing them. Truly, you don’t have to be a genius to know that there is no way you would transport such a large number of people without people seeing the long convoy. It’s not as if people didn’t see the gory spectacle, but what could they have done against a rampaging gang that was armed with Kalashnikovs, A.K. 47 and machine guns? Fire arrows at them? Throw stones to stop them?

Another naked truth is, our troops also saw them, but were they equipped enough at the time to confront and stalk the insur­gents? If you were in their shoes, wouldn’t you rather run as fast as your legs can carry you, enter a house and disguise as a woman instead of dying like chicken? Remember, this was an era when people were convert­ing monies meant for equipping the troops to buying mansions in choice locations in Abuja, building shopping malls all over the place. What can any soldier do in that circumstance? Nothing, except to run for dear life. That’s exactly what the troops did that day, and a few other occasions. For that, many of them were court-marshalled, tried and sentenced to death.

Though the sentences had since been commuted, and some of the officers even freed, one cannot but wonder what manner of justice. The sum total of all these is, peo­ple no longer fear God; they dare Him.

Flip the coin to the other side and you discover that a lot has changed under President Muhammadu Buhari. First, he re-focused the war. Then, he restored the integrity and confidence of the army. Under his watch, the troops are better equipped and better motivated. Under him, Boko Haram’s capabilities have been seri­ously degraded; their strongholds amputat­ed. Hundreds of captives have been freed, even as government deals with making life bearable for the about 2.5 million Nigeri­ans displaced by the insurgency. In total, our army, in conjunction with the multina­tional force, are offering no safe haven to the insurgents, which is why they resorted to hitting soft targets. But the campaign is unrelenting. Our army deserves every ac­colade they can, and are now getting.

TOP AGENDA

All these may be good music to the ears of most Nigerians but to the hundreds of the grieving mothers, nothing can be more agonising than the pain of not knowing. Nobody is telling them what they need to know. Therefore, government must, from time to time, process information that would educate Nigerians on its efforts, and bring some succour to the distraught mums. Knowing that somebody is, at least, doing something, could be reassur­ing. It could bring some comfort.

Already, one of the mums has died, un­able to handle her grief. No other mother must die. And there must be no other an­niversary of Chibok 219; just like the Senate admonished the National Security Adviser, Service Chiefs and the Inspec­tor General of Police when it summoned them, Thursday, last week. The freedom of Chibok 219 must remain a top prior­ity in the campaign against Boko Haram. The military must maintain the current momentum and ensure that there is no safe haven for the insurgents in any part of Ni­geria, whether they disguise as women in purdah or masquerade as Fulani herdsmen, as some people are already postulating.

Our troops must be well motivated and armed to the teeth to face the enemy. Intel­ligence gathering and sharing are crucial in winning an unconventional warfare of this nature. Therefore, our country must continue to cooperate with those friendly countries that are helping us in this regard while our own intelligence community ups its game. Inter-agencies rivalry must stop. The cat-and-mouse relationship among the agencies must stop. We must prosecute this war with a unity of purpose because it is about Nigeria. It is about all of us as Ni­gerians. It is about our children. It is about our children’s children.

God bless Nigeria.