Chibok Girls: Where Are The American “Special Force”?

The abduction of over 270 girls of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State by the Boko Haram sect is one of the most embarrassing incident to the federal government led by President Goodluck Jonathan in recent times. It was an incident that overshadowed the World Economic Forum(WEF) held in Abuja recently as the world instead of celebrating Nigeria’s emergence as the preeminent economic power house of Africa having in weeks before the WEF meeting emerged the biggest economy in the continent following the rebase of its economy, was fixated on the abduction of the innocent school girls.

With the “Bring Back Our Girls” campaign trending all over the world, bad press has never been so bad for President Jonathan. Even when helps were promised they were coming with loads of insults from some of Nigeria’s “friends”. Even though the United States promised to send help in the form of technical assistance with its superior satellite and drone technology, the help was not coming without insulting the sensibility of Nigerians, the president and the army. The ranking United States senator, Senator John MacCain said that Nigeria’s central government has failed and that it was as a result of its incompetence that the girls were kidnapped without trace. The former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton also blamed Nigerian government for the growing level of insurgency alleging that it has not done enough to curtail the activities of the insurgents. Perhaps the most damaging was the allegation that Nigeria’s military had been compromised as a result the United States security officials sent to rescue the abducted girls will not share intelligence information with Nigerian security officials.

We were also made to understand that some American special forces and negotiators are in Nigeria even as the US drone stations in Chad had been mobilised to offer needed security backup to the combined security officials from UK, France, China and Israel among others in the effort to rescue the girls since according to critics the Nigerian army is not up to the task. However nearly a month after the foreign intervention led by the Americans which many Nigerians believed has the silver bullet that can unravel where the girls are hidden, the girls are still at the mercy of their kidnappers. Already many Nigerians are now wondering what went wrong. Perhaps it is now obvious that the Americans and the “Allied Forces” have like their Nigerian counterparts been out-foxed by the Boko Haram. Asymmetrical war as the Americans know too well is too difficult to win, were it not so why did it take the world’s most sophisticated army over 10 years to get Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11. Such knowledge should have made MacCain, himself a veteran of Vietnam war, to be circumspect in bad mouthing Nigerian president and his army over the abduction of the Chibok girls.

It is now obvious that the only way the fight against insurgency in Nigeria can succeed is through synergy between Nigerian security officials and the international forces supporting them and not by looking down on Nigerian army that has over the years proven to be one of the best in the continent.