IT is about twelve calendar months since more than 200 young Chibok girls between 15 and 20 years of age were allegedly abducted by a group of extremist Islamic militants from the famous Government College in Chibok, community of Bornu state. This dastardly invasion of the students of that institution most of who had just finished their senior school certificate examination has been described as the first of its kind in the annals of history of the country called Nigeria.

That incident which occurred precisely on April 14, 2014 had thrown the whole country into mourning and has forced many parents and guardians to withdraw their wards not only from that institution but also from institutions in that part of the state for fear of a repeat of the episode. We are all aware that this event has affected the development of education in the North-eastern states of the country. Soon after the notorious but faceless Boko Haram organisation issued a statement claiming responsibility for the abduction of the innocent girls.

The socio economic and political consequences of the Boko Haram challenge which started since 2009 has since attracted global interest due to the strategic position of the African giant in international politics, economy, sports, entertainment and what have you. Critics of the Nigerian government including a section of the international community have condemned what they described as the lackadaisical posture of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration in the face of the Nigerian extraction of the Islamic state movement spread across the world.

Judging from the reactions of the various religious ethnic and political leanings of the country including the government itself, it would appear that no single Nigerian has come out to justify the cause of the Boko Haram group. Islamic scholars and leaders in northern Nigeria, including the Christian council of Nigeria have collectively disassociated themselves from this call for a third world war even as the Boko Haram have proposed the Islamisation of the Nigerian state.

The inability of the Nigerian armed forces to contain the Boko Haram menace since the past six years or so, is seen by some critics as the result of Goodluck Jonathan’s weakness or lack of force or is it firmness similar to those military traits exhibited by ex-president Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo and which is also expected of the president elect. Rtd General Muhammudu Buhari.

Perhaps, these critics are indirectly advocating the recruitment of Nigeria’s presidents from the retired military class which is an invitation of our stinkingly wealthy retired generals into full time partisan politics, irrespective of their ability to capture the eligibility clauses in the 1999 constitution.

Very often, one is tempted to think that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was losing grip of the excesses of some members of his team, a situation of which General Olusegun Obasanjo would have been able to address even as political pundits see Obasanjo as having employed rain doctors to drench the truck of salt he had contributed to pay for.

But in a humorous conversation with a friend of mine living at Kirikiri, Oja, Lagos, expressed an exceptional sentiment about the obvious setback suffered by the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti state where nearly every family have produced a university professor. In resistance to what Olatunde described as the enthronement of mediocrity, but here we are, one cannot eat his cake and have it.

Goodluck Jonathan, could not have been a democrat and at the same time a dictator. The president himself was virtually shedding tears over the disappearance of these girls like any other patriotic Nigerian.

It is not reasonable to say that the president knew much about the Boko Haram terrorists and that he was dragging his feet in the fight against them in order to postpone the 2015 polls to further prolong his stay in office as was being speculated in some quarters or even to insinuate that the mere obstinacy of the insurgents has caused this political misfortune.

After all various, developed countries have donated both moral and financial support towards bringing back the Chibok girls to no avail. One continues to wonder to whom the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) appeal is being directed to.

Is it to the president or to the Boko Haram? The Nigerian armed forces equally cannot justifiably be held responsible by any standard of the seeming delay in sacking the Boko Haram insurgents, bearing in mind, that the terrorists have no fixed abode or battle field and that the guerilla warfare is no respecter of military tactics.

Therefore, it has become necessary for the BBOG led by Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, the former Education Minister and their allies in diaspora to endeavour to focus on prayers for the nation at this trying period rather than weeping up political sentiments. However, it is the hope of all Nigerians that the president- elect Rt. Gen Muhammadu Buhari will use his experience as a former military president to right the wrongs of the armed forces in our bid to eradicate the Boko Haram challenge in record time.

Mr. Uche Nwadialor, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.