Newspapers were awash in the past week with the story of the meeting former President Olusegun Obasanjo held with people close to Boko Haram in the desperation to seek rapprochement that will ensure the release of the over 200 schoolgirls the sect abducted in Chibok on April 14.
The meeting, reported by AFP, took place in Obasanjo’s country home in Ota, Ogun State and signposts part of the several efforts by the Nigerian government, the international community, and individuals to get the girls out from forced imprisonment.
Reports of the meeting coincided with the intervention of Cameroon, which deployed 1,000 troops to its border with Nigeria to fight the growing insecurity threatening the cordial relationship between the two countries.
Cameroon’s Defence Ministry officials said the troops would carry out reconnaissance missions and return fire if necessary.
While these two cheery pieces of news were happening, Boko Haram struck, again in Borno and Yobe States, killing about 34, including soldiers and policemen.
The talks in Ota reportedly included relatives of senior Islamist figures and other intermediaries and focused on how to free the girls through negotiation.
“As an African father, a Nigerian father or grandfather, any of the girls could have been my daughter or granddaughter…. So I am only trying to reach out to see what can be done to secure their release,” Obasanjo told a national daily.
Since the abduction of the girls, which triggered domestic and global outrage, most people had expected Obasanjo to comment or intervene to secure their release. That did not happen until last week.
The expectation is based on his national and international clout, his experience on security and international politics.
In September 2011, following Boko Haram bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja, Obasanjo single-handedly sought negotiation with Babakura Fuggu, an in-law to the murdered leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusufu, by visiting the family in Maiduguri.
He probably discovered that President Goodluck Jonathan did not have the lever to embark on such delicate assignment, notwithstanding that Jonathan is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Though the talks in 2011 did not stem the Boko Haram violence, and even caused the death of more family members after Obasanjo’s visit, his bravery to meet those he thought could help in resolving the riddle left an impression in the minds of some Nigerians and the international community.
Three years down the road, the same scenario has not changed, as neither Jonathan nor Vice President Namadi Sambo has the courage to meet directly or indirectly with Boko Haram.
As happened in 2011 when Obasanjo met with people to negotiate a ceasefire with Boko Haram, I will not be surprised if his latest effort is painted in political colour, thereby worsening the situation of the abducted girls.
Because he has expressed concern over Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military personnel to help resolve domestic issues, including that of the abducted girls, I will be surprised if that does not become an issue in Aso Rock.
That he was even quoted by AFP as saying that “he is worried that Nigeria’s prestige in Africa as a major continental power had been diminished by President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to bring in Western military help, including from the United States,” may not go down well with Jonathan’s handlers.
Obasanjo also supports a deal that will free some of the girls in exchange for Boko Haram members in custody, which again is contrary to the thinking of the government.
In ruling out a prisoner swap, Abuja sent an intermediary, Ahmad Salkida, a journalist with ties with Boko Haram, to negotiate the girls’ release.
But the government seemed to have discarded this idea after Jonathan’s return from the security conference in Paris, where the attendee countries pledged to confront Boko Haram using resources at their disposal.
Rather than look for faults around Obasanjo, this government should work with him and his team of informants on Boko Haram for the common good of the girls in particular and the country at large.
Nigerians already know that Obasanjo and Jonathan have fallen out politically, but that is not what we are talking about now.
The issue on the lips of all Nigerians today, regardless of political or religious leaning, is how to bring the girls home safely. Nigerians do not care who does it: Jonathan, Obasanjo, America, Britain, France, or any other country.
Our individual ego must be shielded now because it does not even make sense to advertise it. We need all collaborative efforts to secure the release of the girls, and politics and other considerations should be left out.
The disclosure by Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, that security forces have located where the girls are held is heart-warming.
Anybody following the Oby Ezekwesili-led activists and pressure groups on their regular march in Abuja would have noticed the joy on their faces when Badeh made the disclosure.
“When the defence chief said that we have identified the location and the camp of these terrorists, hope was restored,” stated Abdullahi Abdulmajeed, Head of the National Youth Council of Nigeria.
I must also salute the courage which Cameroon, criticised in Nigeria for providing a haven for the insuregents, has shown by deploying reinforcements to its common border with Nigeria.
What Cameroon did on May 20 is walking the talk. It encourages the effort Nigeria and its allies are making to ensure that we live in a secure environment.
However, those who argue that Obasanjo is seeking attention with his mediation talks are not friendlier to Jonathan, because those Jonathan should consider his friends now are those who can help him to overcome his challenges.
The time to flex muscles is not now, and if anybody has muscles to flex he should do so with our common enemy, Boko Haram insurgents. Because of their activities, the government, its institutions like the army, police and their officials, have been tagged incompetent by journalists in the foreign media, including CNN correspondent, Isha Sesay.
Sesay, a Sierra Leonian, has, out of a faint knowledge of Nigerian history or mischief, forgotten that her relations are living today because of the sacrifice Nigeria made through ECOMOG to save their lives.