A former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party, Chief Dele Momodu, has lamented that the rescue mission launched by the Federal Government to free the abducted Chibok girls is taking longer than expected.
The Ovation magazine publisher expressed concern that the global campaign, especially on the international media, mounting pressure on the Federal Government to expedite actions on the girls’ freedom was gradually dying down.
Writing on Twitter on Tuesday, Momodu said he woke up frustrated that the security forces who had claimed to know where the girls were had failed to reunite them with their loved ones.
He accused the Federal Government of making “empty promises” to the girls’ family and Nigerians, adding that no excuses can justify the security forces’ failure to bring back the girls after 57 days in incarceration.
Momodu said in view of the continued incarceration of the schoolgirls, coupled with the alleged failure of the security forces in its rescue operation, the Federal Government should not hesitate to negotiate their release.
According to him, it was amazing how life “can carry on as normal” after dozens of the schoolgirls whom he described as “our daughters” have been adopted and many more were disappearing.
He said, “We may continue to live in denial and pretend that this ugly saga will go away like everything Nigerian, but it will haunt us all forever! Let me reiterate that if it is impossible to liberate those girls by force we should be reasonable to know that we must negotiate urgently!
“I have no doubts that if the children of our leaders and the super rich were among the kidnapped girls, our governments would have negotiated and even paid heavy ransoms! There is no excuse or justification for failing to find and liberate those girls after two months of empty promises and grandstanding!
“Those who know where these girls are should please kindly organise a commando operation and do whatever it takes to rescue them! Our wonderful governments are still making infinitesimal promises and who are we to say nothing concrete is on ground to find our girls!”
Momodu carpeted President Goodluck Jonathan for allegedly failing to act immediately the girls were kidnapped from their school dormitory.
He urged Jonathan to do away with self-serving advisers and aides who are “making him look bad in the eyes of the world.”
“Over 200 girls were abducted by terrorists; these magicians lied to our President that it didn’t happen and he believed them! For three weeks our President did not address the nation until the cries of the entire world reached Aso Rock and promises came as usual!
“Our great country is bleeding dangerously and speeding towards perdition, advisers will come and go but Mr. President alone will carry the cross! My sincere advice to our dear Commander-in-Chief is to urgently free himself from those who make him look so bad in the eyes of the world!” Momodu added.
A media researcher and new media expert, Sunday Dare, argued on Twitter that Nigerians must see the need to come together and continue to mount pressure on government to free the girls.
Nigerians, he argued, must remain united on ensuring that those behind the violent extremism are brought to justice and their atrocities curtailed.
“It will be to our collective shame and failure if we let the campaign to bring our girls back to stop. We must keep up the pressure,” Dare tweeted.
An online commentator based in Ibadan, Ally Oyedokun, said it was worrisome that the girls remained in the custody of their captors.
“I cherish my freedom and I grew up to realise that a day in captivity is longer than the normal 24 hours. Please, another day of hope for the Chibok girls, separated from their families.
“It’s been 57 days, but there shall be light at the end of the tunnel. My faith is in the almighty God and my hope is continually renewed, that God will bring back our girls even if the government gave failed us,” he tweeted.
Warning that the failure to bring back the girls will be an indictment on the Jonathan-led government, another concerned Nigerian, Mustapha Abubakar, said the security officials must be reminded that each day passing without a headway, the chances of finding them alive were reducing.
“More than 50 days since the Chibok girls were abducted. Our military knows where they are and ‘miraculously,’ no rescue attempt has been carried out. Failure to rescue the Chibok girls will be an indictment on the Federal Government,” he wrote.
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