Was Jonathan alleged visit to Chibok a trap?

By George Agba, Leadership reporter

In Aso Rock on Monday, the mixed grill that trailed President Goodluck Jonathan’s botched visit to Chibok, where the school girls of Government Girls’ Secondary School were kidnapped by the Boko Haram sect dominated gist among colleagues of various department. Apprehension saturated the seat of power.

In groups, security operatives, Journalists, protocol officers whispered within themselves.

Craning their eyes suspiciously and vigilantly in all direction and in no direction in particular for checks against any eavesdropper, they pondered over series of issues concerning the Chibok trip- why it was widely publicized and why it turned out to be a hoax.

Some of the president’s men wondered why the   cancelled trip attracted a lot of public criticism despite explanation by presidential spokesman that there was no plan for such a visit.

Abati had through his twitter handle @abati1990 said, “Every trip by the president is usually pre-announced. The presidency did not at any time announce a trip to Chibok today (Friday). Ignore rumours”.

From France where he had gone for the security summit on Boko Haram, the president too explained why the Chibok trip shouldn’t have been necessary at the moment. “These girls are not held in Chibok. Sometimes people want the president to go to Chibok.

If the president goes to Chibok today, it does not solve any problem. The problem facing the president and indeed the Nigerian government is how to get these girls from wherever they are”, he said.

But the president and Abati’s clarification only fuelled more fiery attacks on the presidency for cancelling the trip. For Lagos Lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN Jonathan’s cancelled visit to Chibok was an expression of his fear for the soldiers in Borno State.

“Why did President Goodluck Jonathan cancel his visit to Chibok? Is he afraid of Boko Haram? No. He is afraid of the soldiers, his army. The mutiny that occurred in Chibok was a reaction against the way the authority is treating the soldiers. They are not happy”. he stated.

The All Progressive Congress (APC) expressed shock over Jonathan’s stance that he did not go to Chibok because the girls were not being held there. “This statement shows that President Jonathan does not understand the demands of his office, and that in good/bad times, he is to be seen and heard as the lead celebrant/lead consoler for his compatriots.

His statement is the most pedestrian justification of a presidential faux pas ever”, the party spokesman, Lai Mohammed said.

There are still others who believe that hat the leakage of the visit which originally was meant to be a private one and not publicized impelled the security agencies to change the plan in order to keep the President away from impending danger.

Besides, they argue the absence of the Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, who was officially away to the United Kingdom, may have promptd the president to shelve the trip.

But Jonathan was not left in the cold.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih was among those who quickly came out in defense of the president. Noting that the president cannot resign because of the abduction of the school girls said no president could have done better within constitutional limit than Jonathan had done in handling the insurgency in the Northeast.

He said there was no way the president could have carried arms and go to Sambisa Forest. Anenih deplored what he described as a “situation where some opposition politicians have tried to make political issues out of it by calling for the resignation of President Jonathan over a group that is waging war against the Nigerian state”.

There is a congruence of opinion among commentators in Aso Rock that the infiltration of soldiers by Boko Haram was enough security alerts for the presidency to cancel its visit to the 3-states under emergency rules. Recalling the fate of the late GeneralAguiyi  Ironsi,  They said nobody can tell what some power mongers in the country would do just to reclaim the number one seat.

But President Jonathan can be anything including slow as some Nigerians claim, but he can never be foolish. If this Chibok kidnap is bait, then the big fish has refused to go for it. It might just be that those bashing the president for not going to Chibok are trying to clone him into a modern day William Shakespeare’s character, Julius Caesar.

Jonathan can’t be Caesar who a soothsayer had warned against going to the capitol where security has given way to conspiracy.

The confident Roman war general dismissed the soothsayer as suffering from cerebral malaria. His wife too had warned him of a nightmare she had in which she saw Caesar’s stature dripping blood. She tried to persuade him not to go to the Capitol on the Ides of March, but he claimed that even danger knew too well that he, Caesar, was dangerous than danger. He sheepishly went and was killed by the conspirators led by his friend, Brutus.

If the security report which advised President Jonathan against going to Chibok signaled danger and Jonathan had chosen to ignore it, even those criticizing him today would have called him a fool.

Was Jonathan alleged visit to Chibok a trap?