UK offers spy plane to help rescue operations

…As Wole Soyinka slams critics of foreign assistance

Britain has of­fered Nigeria a surveillance plane and a mili­tary team to help with the search for more than 200 missing female students of Government Girls’ Sec­ondary School, Chibok, Borno state, abducted by Boko Haram militants.

“Today I can announce we have offered Nigeria further assistance in terms of surveillance aircraft, a military team to embed with the Nigerian army in their HQ and a team to work with US experts to analyse information on the girls’ location”, Prime Minister David Cameron told the UK parliament on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Defence clarified that one Sentinel plane would be sent. Spe­cialist teams from the Unit­ed States, Britain, France and Israel have been sent to help in the search opera­tion.

Britain last week sent a team of experts to Nigeria including officials from the ministry of defence. Cameron’s spokesman said on Monday they had met president Goodluck Jonathan. US surveillance planes have been scouring a vast swathe of north East zone, looking for the girls. Boko Haram on Monday released a video of more than one hundred of the girls, saying they had con­verted to Islam.

Meanwhile, Prof Wole Soyinka yesterday gave nod to foreign assistance to Nigeria to help rescue the girls. Some local commen­tators have suggested that welcoming help from for­eign militaries was an em­barrassment for Nigeria.

Soyinka, who spoke to AFP by phone from Los Angeles, said such critics were showing a lack of compassion for the teen­aged hostages. “I don’t know what they are talking about,” he said.

“This is a global crisis. “In this situation, where we have these kind of killers, homicidal maniacs who can go into schools and kidnap hundreds of girls… all help is welcome,” Soy­inka said.

For the international community, given such horrifying violence, inter­vening is “not a favour”, he added. “It is a duty.” On the prospect of negotiation with the militants he said, “It is a bind for the nation because the girls must be secured.”

He however expressed concern over the status of Boko Haram leader whom he described as “a sub-human species.” He described Shekau as a man “high on religion and drugs”. “For me, we are dealing with a sub-human species,” Soyinka said. “How do you dialogue with that kind of obscenity?” voicing sympathy for the officials who must assess the pros and cons of talking to Shekau.

Commenting on Nige­ria’s track record of crack­ing down on protests, Soy­inka warned

President Goodluck Jon­athan against suppressing public anger over the plight of the girls and the escalat­ing Boko Haram violence.

Jonathan’s administra­tion “had better be very, very careful, because peo­ple are in pain and they have been in pain for a very, very long time”, he cautioned. If the protests continue, Soyinka said, the government “had better get out of the way”.