When one has made much of a bad situation in the past and same events recur under a favoured reign, speaking new words becomes a meticulous conscience-throbbing art.

Mr Festus Keyamo, a reputable Nigerian lawyer, is currently undergoing this and it is safe to say it is not going well.

In the wake of the kidnap of 110 school girls from Dapchi in Yobe state last week, everything that happened after the kidnap of girls in Chibok in April 2014 has repeated itself, including denials, accusations and counter-accusations. Members of the opposition at the time of the Chibok kidnap, the APC, saw the unfortunate incident as definite proof of the incapacity of then president Goodluck Jonathan as Commander-in-chief on grounds of his failure to protect the country from the ravaging insurgency. Why parents of the missing children worried and agonized, campaign grounds where brooms were raised high were filled with authoritative boasts that such things would be history with Buhari as president.

Now in-charge, the Buhari APC administration in its three years has achieved “tactical”, “technical”, and “complete” victory over Boko Haram, yet the same ill events of the Jonathan era have occurred. Only that now, the response from the once critical camp is one of not playing politics with the situation.

One of the more popular and respected legal minds in the country, Mr Keyamo has stuck his neck out in defence of the present administration, often drawing comparisons with what he would have Nigerians see as the maladministration of the PDP years before Buhari. This he has done against the backdrop of the Buhari government’s frequent cases of calamities, none of which he has objectively criticized.

Mr Keyamo’s analysis of the Dapchi kidnap, as posted on his twitter feed, attempts to excuse president Buhari by roping in the shootings of 17 school children in Parkland, Florida, as though both events have same historical import or same level of administrative culpability. Claiming that such things could happen even under “the most vigilant of governments”, Keyamo arrogates to the Buhari administration a reputation for security which fatal events from the first day of this year show up as ridiculous and insensitive.

By no stretch of the imagination or instrument of objective assessment has the Buhari government been “the most vigilant of governments” and one would expect a well respected legal mind to not attempt such contrivance for political points, an accusation he levels against those lamenting the Dapchi kidnap. The Buhari government was certainly not vigilant in Benue where it had advanced notice of a possible invasion, nor in Zamfara where such clashes have occurred before, neither did it show any vigilance in withdrawing men of the Nigerian Army from Dapchi on the idea that it was “relatively calm and peaceful”. There is certainly no vigilance when the Police and the Army are now in a spat on who should have protected Dapchi, as the BBC’s Stephanie Hegarty reports.

Rather than attempt shaming those who ridiculed the Chibok kidnap as self-defence for the unfortunate Dapchi incident, Mr Keyamo may have better served the public by sticking to the script of the Presidency by joining in the expression of regret that the incident could have repeated itself in the first place. Finding the girls is the only politics that should matter at the moment, not justifying the possibility of the kidnap or comparing reactions in the aftermath.

Alexander Onukwue