The Dapchi Crisis

Finally, government has swallowed their words-and pride- to acknowledge that there were people kidnapped in Yobe state, North east Nigeria.. Initially when the news broke, the Army insisted that there was no girls missing. Before evening of the same day, they confirmed that there was indeed kidnap of children of Federal Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi by suspected Boko Haram terrorists. This is coming at a time when the Federal Government has been freeing suspected Boko Haram members in their custody. Besides, Government has been insisting that Boko Haram has been decimated and technically defeated, while turning around to request senate approval for $1 billion to fight the already defeated group. Also, their request to buy fighter planes to fight the insurgents from the United states of America ,met  a brickwall when US demanded for full payment but wants to deliver the planes in2020, when the current tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari might have elapsed. Recently, 475 detained Boko Haram suspects, were released by the Federal High Court sitting at Wawa Cantonment in Niger State and sent to their state governments for proper rehabilitation.

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The president, who has a penchant for taking decisive action only when it involves his Fulani tribe-he was quick to visit Adamawa where Fulanis and cattle were allegedly killed but not Benue, where over 70 humans died-have made no efforts to visit the state besides describing the kidnap a National disaster. But according to Femi Adesina, his spokesman, he can only visit the scene when he wants. “The president is the father of the nation,he can visit anywhere at anytime. ” Adesina said.

Government has called a stakeholders’s meeting to asses the situation on ground, and the result is not cheering.

“It was a meeting between stakeholders to get a first hand information and, out of the total register of 906 students in school that day, 110 students are unaccounted”, Lai Mohamed, Information minister had said.

The repeat of the internationally notorious Chibok Girls in 2014 in the current version tends to suggest that both are ploys by politicians to score cheap political points, and that it may not be completely free of international conspiracy. During the Chibok girls saga, American first lady joined the Bring Back our girls movement, carrying placards with the inscription. Oby Ezekwesili, a former World Bank Staff, has been at the forefront of the BBOG agitations, but lost her steam under the Buhari administration. It remains to be seen how she will react in this situation.

But Pundits posit that it is the same shadow government that brought about the kidnap of the Chibok girls on the same day that Nigeria was declared the biggest economy in Africa at the World Economic Forum in Abuja may be behind the current kidnap. Groundswell of opposition to the possible candidacy of Buhari for 2019 elections points to the facts. Similarities with Chibok are much. Before chibok, Obasanjo wrote a letter to Jonathan, now he wrote Buhari. Former President Babangida followed through his aid Kassim Afegbua, same thing is happening now. And Abdulsalami Abubakar has been involved in Shuttle diplomacy. Buhari suddenly developed cold feet in announcing his intentions to serving APC governors who wat to ride on his back to their second term.