President Jonathan in Maiduguri – The Guardian

President Jonathan in Maiduguri – The Guardian

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President Goodluck Jonathan’s surprise visit to Maiduguri, the Borno
State capital, to commemorate the Armed Forces Remembrance Day
the other day was very appropriate. But it was also appropriately
questioned in intent, merit and purpose by Nigerians. Besides his
inexplicable inability to visit Borno and two contiguous others – Yobe
and Adamawa – ordinarily, as the President and Commander in Chief,
a visit to any state in the country ought to be routine. But those three
states, having in the past five years been under intense and sustained
attacks from insurgents who have been decimating the population
there, displacing survivors from towns and villages, and freely gaining
territorial space to establish a supposed caliphate, ought to have been
ports of call for Jonathan several times before that remembrance day
visit.

President Jonathan’s visit, therefore, did him little credit because the
timing was not too edifying, having for long resisted intense pressure
to go there especially since the April 14, 2014 abduction of about 276
secondary school girls from Chibok by the rampaging Boko Haram
sect members. Almost a year after, the girls are still in the custody of
the insurgents who once derisively proclaimed sale of their victims in
the open market.

It may be alright that the president finally seized upon the anniversary
of the Armed Forces Remembrance Day to check on the toiling
soldiers at the Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri (to express
appreciation for their courageous and patriotic service) and their
wounded colleagues in hospital and also to empathise with some of
the displaced persons in camps.

But the foot-dragging by the president was an unnecessary own goal,
as he missed the opportunity of paying himself a lot of compliments
as a caring leader.

However, it is noteworthy that Jonathan used the occasion to touch on
the much-criticised lapses in the operations of the troops. He assured
them that the Federal Government would do everything to ensure that
they get the weapons and other equipment needed while also
promising improvement in welfare and logistics support, as the troops
seek to completely rout the insurgents and restore full security to the
affected areas. By promising to address all operational challenges
confronting the troops against the dreaded, inhuman sect members,
Jonathan certainly struck the right chord. That tacit admission from
the president of a shortage of firepower and logistic support for the
troops, a claim the authorities have time and over vehemently denied
is, however, not enough.

It is not enough to make public commitments on equipping the troops,
supporting the injured and the hundreds of thousands of displaced andmtraumatised persons. There must be visible, verifiable actions taken to alleviate the assault on their bodies and psyche. The affected persons have suffered untold hardship just as the states have been ruined economically and the Federal Government must, therefore, begin to rebuild lives.

While a number of observations and insinuations have been rightly or
wrongly made about the President’s visit, coming as it were on the
eve of the general elections, that he said the right things cannot be
denied.

Tying the movement to a significant event on the calendar of the
military can hardly be faulted, but this year’s was not the first of such
remembrance days since terrorism gained ascendancy in the land.

The
message is simply that the visit has been diminished in value and the
good promises rendered hollow. Certainly, the harm has been done in
exposing the current capacity of the military. Accusations in some
quarters of a poorly prosecuted war against insurgency which might
not entirely be of the making of foot-soldiers are not only deemed
correct, they call for a new approach to recruitment, training and
motivation for the soldiers. The country’s military institution cannot
continue to be the butt of jokes. The buck stops, therefore, on the
desk of the commander in chief and he needs to act.

Paying due honours to the fallen ones and the injured like the
president did during the visit was good but raises serious questions on
how much a Nigerian soldier’s life is worth. Not much is seen to have
been done by way of befitting burial for fallen soldiers and care for
their families. The President certainly needs to do more to re-assure
the troops that he is with them in the battle against the insurgents. He
must not only act appropriately but also timely, especially with a keen
eye on his own place in history.