#Dapchi: Nigeria's Politically Choreographed 'Abductions'

by Eze Eluchie

Having sneaked it’s way into office under the guise of providing strong leadership, particularly in the areas security of lives and properties, the Muhammadu Buhari-led government in Nigeria was understandably feeling quite exposed with the frequency of bloody terror attacks staged across the North-east fringes of Nigeria by Boko Haram. With an economy already at the brinks, increasing frequency of murderous attacks across the country by Fulani Herdsmen militia and and growing tension across the land on account of the irresponsiveness of the government to diverse national issues, there was the felt necessity by supporters of the regime to ‘prove’ or in any way whatsoever show that the government still had some bite, some exploits/abilities worthy of commendation.

Answer: Stage something spectacular and position the government to play the heroic saviour.

On February 9^th 2018, something spectacular did indeed happen at the Government Girls Science Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe State, North-Eastern Nigeria. A few days after military roadblocks and other security checkpoints were ordered to be dismantled around Dapchi town, a column of what is being touted as supposedly Boko Haram ’terrorists’ stormed the now defenceless school in Dapchi and strolled away with over 100 school girls. Findings by Amnesty International reveal that efforts by persons in Dapchi to notify security agencies while the ‘abductions’ were taking place, was discountenanced. The innocent school girls who were not privy to whatsoever was unfolding resisted, and some of them were killed during the ‘abduction’.

After the Dapchi ‘abductions’, the Nigerian government went into overdrive to stress that it was ‘on top of the situation’ and would DEFINITELY rescue the girls in a very short time span. The Minister of Defence proudly granted interviews within the past few days asserting that ‘gallant’ soldiers were in hot pursuit of the terrorists holding the girls and were on the verge of ‘rescuing’ the ‘abducted’ girls. President Buhari himself, apparently overwhelmed by the plot that was daily unfolding, embarked on an ill-advised red-carpet media-blitz visit to the venue of the ‘abductions’ in Dapchi, where he compared his government’s response to Dapchi with how the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan administration had reacted during the Chibok ‘abductions’, and concluded that his {Buhari’s} administration’s reaction was better. The certainty with which the government was announcing it’s impending success at rescuing’ the girls, was simply mindboggling and suspect.

With the script playing out quite well with Interest displayed by global media outlets about a second mass abduction of female students in Nigeria by ‘Boko Haram’ was sufficient to convince the principal protagonists, the Buhari-led Nigerian government, that it was time to play the ‘hero’ and move to the concluding part of the script – the ‘rescue’/’release’.   

After spending 31 days in supposedly Boko Haram ‘captivity’, a long convoy of vehicles drapped with Boko Haramm flags and conveying heavily armed ‘terrorists’ and the 100 ‘abducted’ girls  meandered, unchallenged, through what is supposedly areas under intense security surveillance, and dropped off the ‘abducted’ girls in the centre of Dapchi town. The residents of Dapchi town, who apparently had foreknowledge of the ‘return’ of the ‘abducted’ girls, lined the streets of Dapchi to usher in the ‘Boko Haram’ convoy into Dapchi.

Pictures taken of the ‘rescued’/’released’ girls, soon after they were dropped off by their captors, of the girls decked in very neat school uniforms and each saddled with a bag of provisions and apparels, coupled with the heroic pre-arranged welcome of the Boko Haram ‘terrorists’ into Dapchi town, was simply too incredulous to be imagined. Are we to believe that the terrorists were so caring that they ensured the ‘abducted’ girl’s uniforms were properly laundered? Did Boko Haram terrorists spice up their caring nature by lavishing the ‘abductees’ with gifts at the end of their ‘ordeal’?

To fully take benefit of their ingenuity, the Buhari-led government wasted no time in claiming ‘victory’ for the ‘release’ of the girls, with the ruling All Progressive Congress {APC} political parties making pronouncements, simultaneous with the ‘release’ of how ‘effective’ the government was in handling the Dapchi ‘abductions’ when compared with how the Chibok saga was managed by the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan administration.

The gloating over the ‘release’ of the Dapchi abductees’ has been ferocious, with nationally owned television and radio channels repeatedly broadcasting news and interviews on the heroic unconditional ‘release’ of the abductees of Dapchi.

Really? Vicious terrorists ‘abduct’ hundreds of school girls, keep them for a month and return them to their parents unconditionally? Without any ransom being paid or other conditions whatsoever? Does this regime really think Nigerians and the discerning international community do not see through this obvious scam?

If only the liberty, safety and lives of innocent school girls was not adversely impacted upon and the concerns of the parents of the girls, the greater Nigerian population and the international community had not been aroused, one would have had a nice lengthy laugh over the childishness of the Dapchi tragicomedy. That a government can descend so low in an effort to prop itself up as a ‘heroic’, security conscious and savvy entity is simply disgusting.

With this level of desperation, one does not need to be a rocket scientist to realize to what extent the sitting government would go in the forthcoming general elections slated for the first quarter of year 2019, towards reinstalling itself into office.

The dark clouds are gathering......

Video link: Residents of Dapchi give heroic welcome to Boko Haram ’terrorists’ when they returned the Dapchi ‘abductees’ earlier today, 21^st March 2018, at Dapchi.

https://twitter.com/SaharaReporters/status/976448663441625089

Picture: The returnee ‘abductees’ (neat and trim with packed bags) earlier today 21^st March 2018, at Dapchi.    

Picture: Residents of Dapchi give heroic welcome to the convoy of Boko Haram 'terrorists' who 'released' the 'abducted' Dapchi girls.

Fresh Abduction of Students by Boko Haram in North-East Nigeria: #GoBuhariGo

by Eze Eluchie,

The antics of a lying, clannish and dense regime rooted in propaganda is busted by amongst others factors, the following: Boko Haram abductions of ore school girls in Dapchi; the daily revelation of large-scale corrupt practices by high officers of the junta; and the hunger decimating the Nigerian population; and several others minuses Nigeria and Nigerians are now saddled with under a government that had sailed into power on the wings of the perceived ‘uprightness’ and ‘integrity’ imbued in the person of the President of the country.

Mr. Mohammadu Buhari, your incompetence, inefficiency, cluelessness, nepotistic tendencies, lies, extremist religious views and general unfitness to preside over a multi-religious, multi-ethnic contraption is tearing Nigeria further and further apart – most will agree the contraption is now dangerously tilting over the edge at a precipice.

For quite awhile, discerning observers have become aware that the current Nigerian government is propped up by a well oiled propaganda machinery, draconian threats and acts of intimidation akin to what transpired during the military era. There is however a limit to which propaganda, threats and intimidation can be used as cardinal pedestals upon which a territory can be governed.

    

General Muhammadu Buhari, Sir, with all due respects, you are humbly urged to make one sacrifice for the benefit of Nigerians: Resign! Go and rest!! Go and enjoy your retirement!!!

Picture: Cross section of students of the Secondary School at Dapchi

Nigeria's North East IDP Camps: The New Norm?

by Eze Eluchie,

Well over a year after Nigeria’s ruler, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, declared Boko Haram to have been technically defeated; and all the over 20 Local Council areas, reputedly held under Boko Haram/Islamic caliphate rulership during the earlier regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan, had been liberated, the fact that there is a continuing growing increase in the number of persons living as ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP’s) in the various IDP Camps scattered across Nigeria’s North-East region and Abuja ought to be sufficient to raise suspicion either as to the veracity of the claims of ‘having defeated Boko Haram’ or the propriety of continuing to provide for the upkeep of thousands of Nigerians who in real terms would be better fending for themselves.

If Boko Haram has been defeated, how come the population of these IDP’s is daily on the increase? How come, despite the Billions of Naira budgeted for the upkeep and welfare of these IDP’s, the public and international community is still being assaulted with gory pictures emaciated and sickly children and residents at these IDP’s?

From a Presidential directive that World Bank and international development assistance to Nigeria be prioritized on the North East region, to the creation of an amorphous bureaucratic structure - Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE), coupled with an ingrained culture of belief, by some in the region, in a right to freebies from the Nigerian State, the IDP Camps in Nigeria's North East region have become a cesspool of slush funds, corruption and waste. Indolence is being patronized, rewarded and institutionalized. Funds are being appropriated to erect concrete mansions for the so-called IDP’s, who had hitherto due to their nomadic nature, lived in makeshift homes. The fact that the concrete structures are not in tune with the IDP’s cultural and environmental needs is lost in the rush, by bureaucrats, to reap bountifully from awards of contracts.    

There is clearly no end-game planned for the IDP’s as presently structured and organized. They are programmed to last in perpetuity and have embraced aspects of the lifestyles of some of the indigenes of the North east regions, with the ‘enthronement’ of various “Sarkis’”/"Sugaban” {Chief} within the various IDP Camps to oversee diverse constituencies and aspect of IDP life.

The extremely high reproductive rates being recorded in the IDP Camps makes it appear that public funds are being deployed to enhance population figures.

The diverse entities benefiting from the continued existence of the IDP’s also serve to ensure the sustenance of the base existence to which the occupants thereof are consigned to.  These beneficiaries include:

(i) the local bureaucrats/public servants saddled with the management of relief materials and donations, who make a killing from inflated bogus and fictitious contracts for supplies and works – as exemplified by the multi-billion Naira Grass-Cutting Contract scam which involved the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the easy availability of items donated/meant for IDP camp residents use in markets as far flung as in Abuja and Lagos;

(ii) the foreign government/donor agency which considers the wastage of a few million dollars of its Tax-payers funds on a never-ending assistance venture, a worthwhile investment to ensure continued hold and influence over one of the largest economies in Africa;

(ii) the aid workers who labour under the illusion of having an opportunity to appear to be doing something worthwhile with their time;

(iii) the Politicians who now have a ready recruitment base for all manner of ‘enforcers’ and hangers-on, which come in quite handy during periods when resort to election-related violence becomes the difference between victory at the polls or another 4 years in opposition;

(iv) the IDP Camp inmates who are assured of freebies (food, shelter and clothing) for an over extended period when they continue to be resident in the IDP Camps. Why work, when your basics and more can be guaranteed by being in an IDP Camp?

A combination of the above beneficiaries ensures that it will be a long while before sufficient guts is mustered to close the drain-pipes and source of waste the IDP’s are fast becoming.

Lest the IDP Camps in our North East region assume a life of their own and become the new norm, they should be closed forthwith and where appropriate requisite assistance can be rendered to needy refugees to enable them relocate and re-establish in any other part of Nigeria.

Picture: Cross-section of some residents of an IDP Camp in Bornu State, North Eastern Nigeria.