By Paul Onomuakpokpo
It is a robust measure of how much the President Muhammadu Buhari
government has lost credibility that the abduction of 110 pupils of Government
Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State,
has spawned conspiracy theories. Racked by unfulfilled promises, fervent
backers of the Buhari government who were ready to vouchsafe the eternal
integrity of the president no longer accept that his position can be trusted.
They strive to ferret out what could be the real motive for the action or
inaction of the Buhari government.
To be sure, we should
not dismiss the purveyors of these conspiracy theories as sadists who
inscrutably derive fulfillment from the suffering of others. As fellow citizens,
they share the pain of the families of the abductees and the nation. They are
not unaware of the agony parents are subjected to when a child they have sent
to school to learn is abducted. They understand the gnawing anxiety of parents
over the current condition of the abductees, whether they are alive or dead and
whether they would see them again. Their worry is not unfounded. Still fresh in
their memories are the ordeals of the Chibok abductees and those of their
parents. For a long time, nothing was heard about them. Even after the rescue
of some of them, others cannot be accounted for as they have died or the Boko
Haram leaders have made good their threat to sell them off as sex slaves.
