Because Dapchi Schoolgirls Are Not from Elite Families
Ihave long been convinced that majority of our so-called leaders in third world countries often act contrary to reason, but it is often taken to an embarrassing level in Nigeria. The charade in Kano last weekend, which featured President Muhammadu Buhari, 22 state governors and key leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress, is one of such irrational steps. While parents of the 110 girls abducted at Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, by Boko Haram on February 19, were grieving, our leaders were partying in Kano at the wedding of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje’s daughter and Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s son.
This is the peak of man’s inhumanity to man. The wedding ought to have been a modest one. In sane societies, Buhari and his governors would have trooped to the homes of the grieving Dapchi parents. Do they really care that Dapchi girls are still in captivity and being molested by bastards? They don’t give a damn because Dapchi schoolgirls are from poor homes. I am very sure that this wedding would have been a modest one if the daughter of one of the governors is among the abducted girls. In fact, the school would not have been callously unprotected in the first place, if one of their kids is a student of this college.
The fact that the Kano wedding took place amid fanfare, just two days after Boko Haram killed four UN aid workers in Rann, makes this scenario even more depressing. A yet to be verified number of soldiers and policemen were also killed in the Rann fiasco. Also, during the days preceding the wedding, 20 people were killed in Gwamba, Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State. The point I am making is that this country is in a mourning mood and there should be no room for flamboyant merrymakings. Our leaders should be trooping to Dapchi, Rann and Damsa and not to Kano State for one showy wedding, amid pain in the nation. These so-called leaders elected to be part of an awkward show of opulence, financed with public funds, instead of empathising with Dapchi parents. Do they really care if Dapchi parents are mourning? Do they really care if over 100 Chibok schoolgirls are still in captivity? Do they really care if daily, Boko Haram and herdsmen slaughter scores of innocent Nigerians? We are daily assaulted by gory tales from, Gulak, Malam Fatori, Dikwa, Gashigha, Kala Balge, Magumeri, Rann, Madagali, Dalore and several other towns and villages in the North-east. Most of our current leaders are clearly Godless, wicked, purposeless, inept and morally-bankrupt. We have to vote them out in 2019.
Pastor Tunde Bakare’s analysis of the provocative display of opulence in Kano by Ganduje and Ajimobi was fitting. The General Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly said he could not comprehend what Buhari and the 22 state governors were doing at the Kano wedding, while 110 Dapchi schoolgirls are still in captivity.
He declared: “Forgive my ill-mannerism, but I could not comprehend why a governor will celebrate the wedding of his daughter, and another governor of his son, on the front pages of newspapers, flashing it before our eyes, when other peoples’ daughters are in captivity. If any of them had lost a daughter in that captivity, would they celebrate that way? I know the Bible says rejoice with them that rejoice, but I do not know what the president of Nigeria was doing there.
“And somebody came to say ‘let me explain to you, it is Islamic tradition, before this time, about January, they had agreed, that he (Buhari) will be the one to give the bride away and Tinubu will be the one to pay the dowry, and present the son, and they agreed long before now.’ I looked at him and said the president of Nigeria wanted to come to my daughter’s wedding, and I said to him, sir, don’t come. That is beneath your office. Face the work of the state and keep serving.
“And 22 governors showed up to mark register, when 110 daughters of citizens of your nation were captured by Boko Haram that you said you have already technically defeated? It just shows how insensitive our leaders are. We have gotten to a stage that our president has become a king and a monarch. That his son who rode his pleasurable bike that almost claimed his life, will be returning from an overseas trip, where he had received special healthcare that Nigerians cannot afford, that it took a whole minister of state to go and welcome him, because he has no job.
“Anyone who knows the true state of things in Nigeria would weep for the country. If you truly know the truth, you will weep, if you know how much we owe as a country, you will weep. For 16 years of PDP, they borrowed N6 trillion, for three years of APC, they borrowed N11 trillion. And they are not going to pay the debt. You and I, and our children, and our children’s children will pay the debt, unless they write them off again.”
The most painful aspect of the Dapchi schoolgirls’ debacle is that no single person has been sacked for the security lapses responsible for the abduction. Air Chief, Sadique Abubakar has continued with his unproductive story of flying hundreds of sorties in search of the Dapchi girls. So, what have all these sorties yielded? We have suddenly forgotten that they flew hundreds of sorties in search of the Chibok girls that yielded nothing. They are at it again, telling us the same old story. What a country. The Jama’atu Nasril Islam appropriately stated that an example must be set: “Heads must roll for this negligence. Inquiry is not the only way to go. In fact, a serious government would have by now put in jail and suspended all negligent security and political chiefs who could and should have protected these innocent children, rather than the rigmarole setting up of an investigative panel.’’