‘Why FG should negotiate for release of Chibok girls’

Prelate and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Most Rev Prof Emele Uka, spoke with Nicholas Kalu on why negotiations should not be ruled out for the release of the abducted Chibok school girls. Excerpts:
To you think the federal government should swap the abducted Chibok girls for detained Boko Haram members?
I’m compelled to believe that Nigeria is passing through a trying period that is mixed with faith and fear. It looks like the time when Charles Dickens in his Novel ‘The Tale of Two Cities’  wrestled with the theme of duality with respect to the upheavals in London and Paris during the French Revolution.
This kind of situation seems to confront us in Nigeria today when a whole nation with all her mighty Army, Air force and other security apparatuses are being humiliated by a handful of terrorists who despite their small number are able to abduct over 200 teenage school girls, whom they have kept in captivity for nearly forty consecutive days.
The situation has awakened all Christians and non-Christians nationwide and even Christians and non-Christians worldwide to storm the gates of heaven with prayers to the God of Israel – our Christian God, who is supremely able to set captives free from bondage. He did it for the children of Israel when they were in bondage in Egypt for 400 years. He did it for Peter when he was imprisoned by King Herod for preaching Christ.
Also when Paul and Silas were put in dungeon, God set them free in response to their prayer and praise worship. It was the God of Israel who delivered Daniel from the lion’s den and also delivered three Hebrew lads from a fiery furnace.
Should government negotiate with terrorists?
It should be noted that discretion is the better part of valour and that no price is too great to be paid for the emancipation of these innocent, helpless, armless, tender girls.
The government should note that if any of them dies in captivity given the fact that we are dealing with a terrorist group, the blood of the child shall be required especially from the governor of Borno State, the Chief Security Officer of the state, under whose watch this darkness has befallen this nation.
What is more painful for some of us is that the insurgents have no respect or regard for international conventions, for the protection of civilians, especially women and children against the consequences of armed conflicts.
The Geneva protocol provides that attacks against civilian population are prohibited and that attacks may be directed only against military objectives.
The way forward is for governor of Borno State to be encouraged, as he said in his interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN that he would gladly negotiate with Boko Haram, if he had the chance, for the release of the more than 230 abducted Chibok school girls.
He said if he had to talk to the devil to secure the release of the girls he would do so. This window for a dialogue mooted by the governor of Borno State, the very governor who was the Chief Security Officer of the state when the abduction happened, should be taken seriously and a mechanism put in place for the negotiation to take place soonest.
But the group wants negotiation when it is still killing and abducting…
The argument that if Boko Haram wants to negotiate, it must first renounce violence and surrender its weapons of mass destruction, does not arise. And for one to say that the government cannot enter into negotiation with a criminal organisation waging a violent war against the state and the Nigerian people is a fallacy because what is at stake is not the survival of the Nigerian state but the release of Nigeria’s innocent, harmless, helpless, powerless teenage girls who have been in painful captivity for the past 40 consecutive days.
The issue of sitting round a table with leaders of Boko Haram to discuss the release of the girls they have held in captivity for over 40 days is in order. If that is the price Nigeria has to pay to save the lives of innocent girls who the government failed to protect.
Also, the argument that for the government to bend over to engage in dialogue with Boko Haram will convey the message to all other underground movements across Nigeria that it is okay for any militant organisation to use violence to press for its goals, does not hold water.
This argument does not in any way address the issue of how the girls in captivity are to regain their freedom. If we dialogue to give up those in detention and release our girls, what do we lose? Not much. May be the released insurgents can fight us but that is a price we can pay. It is an opportunity cost.
Would we rather let the girls die or let the prisoners be released? Now that the world powers are with us, there will be no hiding place for the insurgents when they are set free. So let’s negotiate in order to save the lives of our daughters.