AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN

IF I WERE YOU IN THIS BOKO HARAM CRISIS

I will bypass all show of courtesy so I can head straight for the cogent facts that I intend to establish in this short piece. This piece will be short enough to afford you the time and strength to read every last word of it, but it will be long enough to pressure your mind until you see the reason why this letter is coming from me at this time.

I should probably commiserate with you on the present situation in the country which is not just worrisome but is as well alarming. For me, I do sincerely hope that you are as disturbed in your mind about this issue, as your external expression on National television always makes us believe. I have never, and will never succumb to the school of thought which posited that the concerned look on your face has always been make-believe. Any right-thinking leader will be disturbed by the recent chain of events.

I do not exactly know which of the events we should begin to cry about; the abduction of the Chibok school girls? The killing of innocent souls? The abduction of respected community leaders and killing of the unlucky ones? Where exactly do we start our grief from as a nation? Particularly alarming is the abduction of the Chibok school girls who are still being held captive more than a month to the incident. Nigeria, the giant of Africa became helpless in the face of a handful of terrorists who do not measure up to 5% of the Nigerian population.

Most schools of thought, especially the ones with political funding believe the crisis has been aggravated by your incapability plus some good measure of insensitivity. While I beg to differ with this school of thought, I posit that instead of incapability and insensitivity, I think the Boko Haram problem has been aggravated by your inability to differentiate between what is important and what is expedient. In our current situation, desperate measures would have been perfect for desperate situations, the kind we have found ourselves in as a nation.

In a normal society where peace is reigning, the likes of Luxembourg, it will be possible to follow textbook-type rules of engagement in the movement of troops, discharge of criminal justice and negotiation of hostage situations. However, when in a war-like situation, and the lives of over 200 future mothers are at stake, more expedient measures has to be taken to ensure their release first, and then security beef-ups later.

While the crisis was just heating up, a few days into the abduction of these innocent school girls, a social analyst posited that the sect might be planning to use the girls as human shield in case of unexpected army offensives. However, news that filtered in later had it that the sect members were already utilizing the girls as sex toys, using them to pleasure their members at will. I see this as a temporary measure because I believe that as soon as a military offensive is launched to release the girls, they will eventually be placed in the line of fire as human shields. That is the most horrible way to die and I do not want us to imagine the possibilities.

Here we have found ourselves in a mad man vs. Normal human situation, which makes it definitely impossible to use reasonable approaches only to resolve the situation. A reasonable and legal approach would have been to mobilize troops towards the sect location and forcefully wrest the girls from their abductors. But, as we have found ourselves dealing with mad men who are ready to die and drag our promising daughters with them into the pit of hell, I think we need a twisty to that textbook approach.

Some days back, the US government released five Taliban in exchange for a US soldier who has been held captive in Afghanistan. It means it is not a new thing in the world of hostage negotiations to offer prisoners who were supposed to be sentenced for their crimes in exchange for the lives of innocent civilians, especially women and children. The Us government knew, that it can only get the detained soldier back alive if it offers the terrorist something which appeals to their self-interest. It does not matter if the criminals walk free, the life of that gallant soldier was worth more.

In this same situation that we have found ourselves, I do not believe that we stand to gain much from insisting on prosecuting detained Boko Haram members when the lives of our girls are at stake. If we can offer the freedom of these doomed criminals for the precious lives of our girls now being exposed to degrading conditions, I believe we stand to gain more as a society. Whether we do it ourselves or karma does it, these criminals are already condemned to the pit of hell; we should not afford them the luxury of taking our young girls along with them.  

If I were you in this situation Mr. President, I would offer everything that is in my capacity to secure the release of these girls. Their lives cannot be secured by military offensives for that will even endanger them even more, we just must intensify our negotiations. I would offer them the carrot of releasing their detained members in exchange for the freedom of my girls and strategize for the next opportunity I get to knock them off with sticks. That is the standard carrot and stick approach for a messy situation of the kind that we have found ourselves in.

It is important to deal with, prosecute and eliminate all elements of the Boko Haram sect, but if I were President, it would be expedient to get the girls back first, no matter what I have to do and deal with the important later. Whatever victory we achieve against the sect in commando style will be Pyrrhic when measured against the lives of our innocent girls that will be lost in the process. I would lose smaller battles (like releasing their members) so I can get my girls back and eventually win the war against terrorism. In the end, what will matter is who won the war, not the number of battles fought.

That is, if I were you....I hope you see some sense in my proposition and then act like I would have.

Long live Nigeria!!! Freedom to our Girls!!!