Ahmed Salkida Reacts To Buhari’s Media Chat

Editor’s note: President Muhammadu Buhari in the
conversation with the journalists last night has
disclosed that there no reliable intelligence on the
whereabouts of the Chibok girls, kidnapped by the
Boko Haram in 2014.
Ahmad Salkida, the journalist known to have some
access to the leadership of Boko Haram, shares
his views on Buhari’s answers and the location of
Chibok girls.

Why is he saying he has no clue about the state
of the girls?

If the president wants to have video evidence of
all Boko Haram captives he can receive it today,
that’s if he hasn’t already.
If the president wants the captors of innocent
Nigerian citizens and school girls to put them on
the phone with their parents, he can have it
done, except if he doesn’t want to.

He has the might as the president, so why is he
saying he has no clue about the state of the
girls?

The girls are still widely reported to be in
Nigeria
Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP),
popularly called Boko Haram, didn’t fall from the
sky; they are mostly Nigerians. The abductions
were done in Nigeria and the girls are still widely
reported to be in Nigeria.
Is the president saying no one in Nigeria has
access to the sect, a country of over 170 million
or, if those with access have not come forward,
what has he done as the president to find them

What does the president mean when he says no
credible leader of ISWAP has come forward with
evidence of the 219 girls abducted in their
dormitories in April 2014 before he will consider
negotiation?

Who are these Boko Haram leaders that were
attempting to approach the federal government?

Does the president want a Boko Haram leader to
approach the fortified gates of Aso Rock and
announce himself and wait to be ushered in?
And who are these Boko Haram leaders that
were attempting to approach the federal
government over the last months that were not
credible enough?
All over the globe, there are people with access
to those who operate outside established norms,
and such people are used to reach out as third
parties to mediate between two opposing sides.

What Buhari should do to save the girls

What any serious government like the one run by
President Buhari (as we are made to believe)
should do is to use his intelligence agencies to
vet those sources.
However, the question we should all be asking
is: what happened to the video evidence former
President Jonathan received less than Two
months into the abduction of the girls that
almost saw the release of the abducted girls in a
swap deal – or is everything Jonathan too dirty
for this government to try its hands on?
My understanding of the Buhari administration as
it relates to the negotiations of the abducted
school girls is that they are living in a bubble.
They want everything to work for them like
ABCD: no hitches, no obstacles. It should be like
sending a child to a shop to buy sweets.

Also noteworthy is the case of four children
between the ages of 5 and 12 among seven
members of a French family kidnapped in
Cameroon and were later swapped with Boko
Haram militants in April 2013.
The examples are many, so are the options
before President Buhari on Chibok girls and
dozens of other captives that now despair at the
likelihood that they will be free from captivity.
I am confident that Chibok girls and other
captives can return to their families
Most of the Chibok girls, whether they are split
into groups or not, are alive, multiple credible
sources have told me, and if a deal to release
them will weaken national security and endanger
the entire country, then the federal government
shouldn’t make a deal.

But was there a deal that can undermine national
security that has been pursued vigorously to its
conclusion? To make the terror group give more
and more concessions, the perspectives of many
top security officials in Nigeria run in opposite
directions with the statements of President
Buhari during his media chat yesterday.
I am confident that Chibok girls and other
captives can return to their families if the
government is half as strong-willed as some of
the girls in captivity that have refused to be
married out or give up their faith.
The girls would have never backed out of any
process, no matter how irritating it is. They
would stay on and negotiate hard until they get a
deal that will earn them their freedom and stop
such abductions so that no one else can ever
witness their woeful plight.