Presidency, Northern Elders Feud Over Chibok Girls, Insecurity

The crisis of confidence between President Goodluck Jonathan and the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has taken a new dimension as the feud over rising insecurity in the North and the abduction of over 200 girls from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State deepens.
On Monday, the NEF gave the president ultimatum to end the spate of insecurity in the North and produce the abducted girls before December otherwise they would work against him, if he decides to contest the 2015 presidential election.
But the president responded yesterday to the NEF ultimatum, saying that no group can threaten him before he will perform his official duties.
Jonathan said it was wrong for any group to issue a threat asking him to rescue Chibok school girls before he could get the support of any person or group for his 2015 presidential ambition.
President Jonathan, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant to the President, Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said he was already working on how to rescue the abducted girls.
Okupe, in the statement in Abuja yesterday, was responding to a threat by the members of the Northern Elders Forum on Monday, where they issued October deadline for the condition to be met.
The NEF position was made known through two of its members, Solomon Dalung and Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
The northern elders were of the opinion that the military can defeat the Boko Haram terrorists – if, indeed, the government wants to subdue the sect.
Okupe, while faulting the northern elders, said “President Jonathan does not require any threat or ultimatum from any group of persons to be alive to his responsibilities to the Nigerian People.”
He added that the issue of insurgency, especially those ideologically based on Islamic extremism was a global phenomenon, which he said required tact, military capability, serious de-radicalisation techniques and community based counter insurgency programmes to ensure success.
In these areas, he said the Federal Government was making progress.
He said the military and other security agencies were improving on operational capabilities and efficiencies by acquiring more advanced weapons and technologies.
Apart from this, he said the government had also drafted more military personnel to the region to strengthen its fighting power.
Okupe added that the government was equally taking advantage of the offers from international military and intelligence allies to assist in identifying key locations.

It would be recalled that the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Monday identified “lack of a strong will at the level of the presidency, deep-seated corruption, incompetence in governments and in the management of security challenges” as major factors fuelling the Boko Haram insurgency.
The body also advised President Goodluck Jonathan to bring an end the insurgency in all its manifestations and produce the Chibok girls before the end of October, 2014, saying In the event that he failed to do so, Nigerians would be left with the only conclusion that he had forfeited his right to ask for their mandate beyond 2015.
In a communique issued at a press conference in Kaduna, NEF said after a major review of the state of the nation, it resolved to continue to offer ways to resolve the country’s current political, economic, security challenges, and also facilitate the emergence of a more united, secure and prosperous nation out of its present limitations.
The statement was signed by Barrister Solomon Dalung and Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, both NEF prominent members.
It reads: “The security situation in our nation today represents the most serious threat to our individual and collective lives in our entire history. The reality is that the threats posed by what appears to be an insurgency that has many manifestations and defies a clear and consistent identity is growing due to the absence of a clear national consensus over its nature, and it solutions.
“The lack of a strong will at the level of the Presidency to fight it, as well as deep-seated corruption and incompetence in governments and in the management of our security challenges has allowed a band of terrorists to take and hold vast parts of our land and populations hostage, while every citizen lives in fear that they will be its next victim.
“The Northern Elders Forum does not believe that the Nigerian military cannot defeat these terrorists. We also reject the notion that multiple internal security challenges such as attacks on villages, ethno-religions conflicts and banditry springing up by the day in many parts of the north are all a coincidence. Indeed, we are convinced that most of these conflicts are being engineered to weaken the North politically and economically by interests which intend to exploit such weaknesses for electoral benefits.

A youth leader, Mosunmola Umoru (left), presenting an award to Vice President, Namadi Sambo, at the 2014 International Youth Day celebration in Abuja, yesterday