The PDP is quick to forget.
Before we do them the honour of bringing to their remembrance how their Jonathan-led administration handled the abduction of 276 secondary schools from the Chibok town in Borno state three years ago, we’ll drag the Makarfi-led PDP faction down the memory lane.
Saturday was just about to end like another typical weekend when news broke that 82 Chibok girls had been freed by their captors. While everyone scampered across the internet in search of verification for the news, the Presidency released an official statement confirming the release of the 82 girls. Less than 24 hours after, President Muhammadu Buhari received the girls in Aso Rock and at the meeting, he described their release as a pleasant second anniversary gift for his administration. The rest of us Nigerians may not exactly describe the news of this return in the same words as PMB but we’re just as grateful and delighted about this major headway.
But there are a few people though, a few unique individuals who perceive things slightly differently from the rest of us.
The Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) thought it was necessary to put out its own release on the circumstances surrounding the release of the girls. The statement partly read, “The release of the girls will increase the agony and high expectancy of the remaining girls still in custody of the terrorists and their families who will be wondering why they have not been so lucky. It therefore would have been better to ensure the release of all the girls at once“. A type of statement that causes one’s brain cells to go on rampage at the level of stupidity one must be on to spew this sort of trash at such sensitive moment. But here’s not the place to let out vitriol. We already dedicated an article to that.
If the PDP thinks this is the time to try to water down this victory (yes, we know it’s not complete but we’re permitted to celebrate this), we’ll remind them of how they brought us all to this point in the first place.
At the time of the kidnap, the British government claimed it offered to help the Jonathan administration in rescuing the girls but was rebuffed by the president. In a mission called Operation Turus, the RAF combed Chibok and nearby towns by an air reconaissance and located the girls few weeks into the mission.
According to a Guardian UK report, “notes from meetings between UK and Nigerian officials, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also suggest that Nigeria shunned international offers to rescue the girls.” The presidency considered the kidnapping a “national issue”. As expected, the presidency denied the reports claiming that it was “so genuinely supportive that the foreign powers involved were granted permission to overfly our airspace, while conducting the search and rescue missions”.
But asides granting foreign powers permission to fly the space, what immediate actions were carried out by President Jonathan and the ruling party? Zero.
In fact, upon the news of the kidnap of the girls, the President’s first reaction was denial. No girls were kidnapped and it’s just fake news. It took him two weeks to accept the situation or make any comment. The former president was reactive about the abduction of the girls and maybe we blame him for allowing the situation to escalate as it did.
But the madness in the PDP bloodline runs deep and it’s exactly why we’d love that they stay mute whenever the Chibok girls issue is raised. We could never forget how Ekiti state governor, Ayo Fayose asserted that the release of 21 girls last October may have been propaganda by President Buhari’s administration. And just to prove that the madness is not going anywhere soon, he made a similar statement on Sunday after the release of the 82 girls.
The PDP clearly has a history of attempting to revive its long-lost relevance when matters of national importance arise and this time, it has crossed the line. The dead Makarfi-led faction, the real faction and whatever is left of the PDP needs to shut up most times. This is not the way to get back in Nigerians’ good books and the time is surely not now.
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President Jonathan was jst a TOM BOY who fotunatly went on a SIX yrs holiday as ”PRESIDENT”while d CABALS feasts on d mases.Nd D Chibok girls was a fal out of dia unpatriotic act agnst d Nig Nation.