Abduction: The Incoherent Story

“Cameras never lie, documents are worthy, dependable referral materials anytime and authorities carry the pot of truth. –Old Myth.
These myths were some
what proven to be true as I journeyed through the tunnel of my carrier in information dissemination. Of course I had always employed the camera to press home my news materials, and once documented, the authenticity of my information is hardly ever in doubt and because I resort to the opinions and views of the authorities, it further boosts the credibility of my story.
Somehow, something tells me that my age-long beliefs, can no longer be relied upon. In short, they are mere fallacy. In my inability to be convinced otherwise, unfolding events tend to signal some form of truth that what I had held on to, for ages as a working tool, could sometimes be faulted. Afterall, is it not mortals and materials made and manipulated by mortals that are involved?
On a second thought, how could any sane mind dispute the fact that authorities “carry the pot of truth,” if so, whose report then is worth believing? What could be more authentic than the words of an authority which duty it is to protect the interest of its subjects and eschew all manner of bias?
The unfolding divergent stories of the abducted girls  in Borno State has become so worrisome that one does not know which is the truth.
Could this be why Gbenga Omotoso of The Nation Newspaper said that “Nigeria is a commentator’s night mare?”
Perhaps one needs to be at the centre of events or probably follow up happenings in the country to be able to pass judgment on Gbenga’s idea of Nigeria as the commentator’s nightmare, an assessment pregnant with meanings.
Granted that sometimes the devil  could visit a printing house so we could talk about the “printer’s devil” or evil, and obvious still, that there are times when the lip could slip to let out what was not originally intended to be said. All these are usually immediately corrected as soon as acknowledged, to prove that they were not the original intention of the communicator and, of course, they happen once in a while.
If the unpopular nature of these errors makes it easily pardonably by the public, what happens when they assume a popular dimension and possible without any effort for correction? I think it is a lesser evil not to inform at all than to misinform a people.
The reports about the abduction of some school girls in Chibok in Borno State is taking a questionable dimension, that is capable of demeaning the image of Nigeria and the authorities that run the affairs of the country in the assessment of the onlookers home and abroad.
Last week, my worry had been on how to harmonise the BBC report on the abduction of secondary school girls in Chibok, Borno State, with that of the local news.
While BBC quoted parents to have told its Hausa service that “at least 200 girls were abducted” by suspected Boko Haram insurgents on Tuesday, April 15, 2014, the local news had it that “no fewer than 100 girls were abducted.”
The commond denominator in the two accounts are chibok the  crime scene and date (Tuesday April 15, 2014).
Otherwise it has not been easy to ascertain the actual figure involved in this incidence.
Meanwhile, while we were battling with that, the Defence Headquarters came up with yet another information, fully  videoed by the media and eventually documented on papers that out of the 129 girls abducted only 8 were yet to secure their release, meaning about 121 girls have gained their freedom irrespective of how it came about.
Of course, such is a welcome news that should be published even in the streets of ‘Ashekelon’, especially coming from the authority in charge of the security of the people.
That again brings to three, the discrepancies in the reports of figures of girls abducted. The first; “at least 200, the second; “no fewer than 100” and the third; 129, perhaps, the later was based on the number of girls  in  the hostel.
While this incoherence could still be tolerated, the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, alarmed the public Sunday when he, while expressing his agony over the incidence, revealed that “Between Saturday night and Sunday evening, seven more girls escaped from captivity, bringing to 52, the number of those with us out of the 129 students that were at the hostel on the day of that attack.”
The governor said “the search for 77 others was still on,” a report that is not in congruent with that from the Defence Headquarters.
Although there are contentions that some may have escaped and and reunited with their parents, for which Governor Shettima had called on parents and guardians to return to the school any student that might have run home  on the day of the attack so that accurate record could be taken to ascertain the missing figure.
The puzzle got more complex Monday, April 21, 2014, with parents insisting that 234 were actually missing, a situation that further shocked the governor, as he shunned security advice to visit the troubled town, where parents told him that officials would not listen to them when they drew up their list of names of missing children which amounted to 234.
Mallam Shettima Haruna, one of the parents of the missing girls, who spoke on behalf of other parents, had told Governor Shettima, Monday, in Chibok, during his assessment visit to the area that only 39 of the abducted girls had so far regained their freedom. “I want to say clearly on behalf of the parents that about 230 girls are still missing, this is because only 39 girls have so far escaped to safety out of the estimated 270 abducted female students,” he said.
From the varying figures of the abducted to the varying figures of the recovered, which is the authentic figure? How many are still missing? I think the greatest unfairness to humanity is the politicization of a national calamity of this nature.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi