Allen Manasseh, a community leader in Chibok, Borno State, has criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for failing to speak about the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok on April 14, 2014.
Mr. Jonathan yesterday made a surprise stop in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, which has been the epicenter of deadly attacks, abductions and destructions of property by Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. After talking to soldiers, Mr. Jonathan visited a camp for people displaced by insurgent attacks, assuring the victims that they would soon return to their original communities.
However, the president did not mention a word about more than two hundred schoolgirls who remain missing nine months after Boko Haram insurgents seized close to 300 of them. Some of the girls managed to escape on their own.
Yesterday’s visit was the first time Mr. Jonathan stopped in Borno State since last April’s abductions that caused global outrage. The president had earlier visited the violence-ravaged state in March 2013 to hold a town hall meeting with members of the Borno Elders Forum and other stakeholders on how to solve the Boko Haram insurgency.
Speaking to SaharaReporters today, Mr. Manasseh, who is a spokesman for the Kibaku community in Chibok, accused President Jonathan of making empty promises during his visit to displaced people. He said he was shocked that the president did not even say a word about the Chibok girls, adding that he doubted the Federal Government was doing anything to rescue the schoolgirls.
“As a director of information of the Chibok Community nationwide, I am short of answers when people call to ask me why did the president keep mute about the Chibok girls on occasions and in places [where] he needs to touch on them.” According to the community leader, the residents of the besieged community “feel pained because we were one ethnic nationality that mobilized and voted for President Jonathan more than any other in the entire northeast. Why are we being shunned always?” He added, “How can we who supported, mobilized and voted for [Jonathan] start shouting in the ears of these parents [of the abducted schoolgirls] to vote PDP?”
Mr. Manasseh also said the president’s response to the carnage in Baga, where Boko Haram insurgents killed hundreds of residents, was inadequate. “The Baga issue deserves more than just condemnation,” said the community leader.
Mr. Manasseh disclosed that the parents of the Chibok girls were saddened that the girls remained missing more than 278 days after their seizure by Islamist militants. He added that Mr. Jonathan’s silence on the plight of the abducted girls and their parents showed that the Federal Government had forgotten about those girls.
He further criticized the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for its shoddy handling of the crisis of internally displaced people in Borno State. Accusing NEMA of failing to live up to its responsibilities, Mr. Manasseh said the agency had not been able to give correct statistics about the displaced. “How can they give emergency assistance appropriately?” he asked.
He said it was shameful that the Federal Government was unable to provide tents for internally displaced people who are being camped in public schools.
The president yesterday assured the displaced people that the Federal Government would ensure that they return to their homes soon, adding that soldiers were working round the clock to ensure that the towns under the control of Boko Haram are reclaimed.
In the wake of the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls from Federal Government Secondary School in Chibok, Mr. Jonathan did not visit the area.