By Rotimi Fasan
NIGERIA was again in the news last week for the wrong reasons following the murder of two hostages, Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara who had been held by Boko Haram for nearly a year.

Prior to this, yellow fever had been turned into the subject of a diplomatic spat between Nigeria and South Africa when Pretoria chose to make a mountain out of a mole hill by deporting Nigerians apparently on suspicion that they might spread the disease to Jacob Zuma’s country which treats Nigerians in a peculiarly hostile manner. Nigeria responded in like manner this time around and even got an apology to the bargain.

But this wouldn’t do for those who constantly want to be in the news. Like most terrorist groups, Boko Haram covets publicity and would do just about anything to get it. And it would appear that the joint attempt by the British and Nigerian governments to rescue the hostages played into their scheme for publicity and they seized it greedily. It wasn’t meant to end in failure or bring sorrow to the hostages involved but that’s how the entire rescue mission has turned out.

Both hostages were workers in an international construction company, Stabilini Visinoni, building a bank in Birnin-Kebbi, Kebbi State, when they were abducted by Boko Haram operatives believed to have links with Al Quaeda. In the fashion of the Osama Bin Ladin group, the Nigerian terrorist group had issued a threatening video in which the two hostages were blindfolded with men garbed in black clothing standing behind them with guns and a sword.

This was in December last year, about seven months after the men were first seized on May 12, 2011. The immediate reason for the rescue bid by special forces from Britain and Nigeria was the belief that the men were in immediate danger of being killed.

McManus, the British-born engineer (Lamolinara, also an engineer, was Italian) had made an appeal to the British government to accede to the demands of Boko Haram in order to save his life. Much experienced in dealing with terrorists than Nigeria, London must have chosen to follow the norm in the West which is not to give in to terrorist demands except in very rare cases.

Accordingly, it ordered a rescue bid, the same commando-style mission that the Americans adopted in killing Osama Bin Ladin some days before Boko Haram struck against Stabilini. The Nigerian mission wasn’t the resounding success that the American had been and the matter was serious enough to elicit comments from Downing Street.

David Cameron confirmed the death of the hostages while his Italian counterpart, Mario Monti who did same, is now under fire by his country’s parliamentarians who are aggrieved that Italian special forces had not been involved in the rescue efforts.

They are demanding to know the extent of the Monti government’s involvement in the mission if a large section of the Italian public was only getting to know of the death of Lamolinara after the failed rescue bid. No doubt, the Italians are upset as most affected people are in circumstances like this.

McManus’ grieving  family appear satisfied that the British government did the best it could in the circumstances and are not complaining, only asking to be left alone to mourn in privacy. This is more than the Italian press and their parliamentarians can say for their government.

They, it would appear, want to be assured that their government did right by Lamolinara. Although the rescue bid has been presented like a Nigerian affair with the British only providing technical support but insider reports indicate the British actually took the lead role in the rescue effort.

Although it hasn’t turned out a total success but the rescue bid was not meant to free the British hostage alone. The complaint by the Italian parliament is intended more, I believe, to show that their government was not just a passive onlooker in a matter that involved an Italian life. In all, it is obvious that London went to great length to free their citizen from Boko Haram murderers.

If they didn’t succeed in bringing the men out alive it wasn’t for lack of effort. And let us remember that we are talking here of just two men, even if it’s not all a matter of number.

But we are talking here of two Western governments going to great length to demonstrate that they care for their citizens. Since Boko Haram began its renewed effort at making Nigeria unsafe, nobody can confidently give an exact figure of their Nigerian victims.

The Madalla Christmas day massacre took many lives, however, the official figure is that 44 Nigerians died. But the circumstances surrounding the massacre indicated many more could have died.

How about Kano? The slaughter here was simply crazy and any official or unofficial figure of the dead is a lie. The only thing clear from the massacre is that Nigerians died in their hundreds. Although state officials tried to downplay the casualty figure as they always do, it was obvious people were mangled beyond recognition.

Boko Haram has killed Nigerians in their hundreds in single attacks, sometimes a couple of times in as many days and apparently with impunity. Most times what happens is that we all wring our hands in helpless resignation and wait for the next attack. This is where state officials who should take responsibility for arresting the situation are not themselves providing cover for the terrorists or releasing them from detention.

President Jonathan may be doing his best but this does not look good enough. He would have to take more strong-arm approach in addressing the matter of Boko Haram. True, he may be limited by technology and necessary know-how in combating terrorists but these are not the only things holding back his effort at addressing the increasing wave of terrorism in the country. He needs to demonstrate more confidence and political will even where he seeks outside assistance as he has obviously done with the Birnin-Kebbi case. He should be seen to be acting and saying more.

All we’ve heard from him so far on the present matter is his confirmation that Boko Haram operatives killed the hostages- apparently before the special forces got to them.

If the British government could go to the extent they have to free their citizen, even if dead, Nigeria has no business condoning the outrage that allows Boko Haram to run amok across our communities and cities the way it has been doing for long, killing and maiming hundreds at a go and at will. We should show we value human life and will not allow for its destruction.