TheCable

Military spokesman, Major-General Chris Olukolade, is one of the best officers and gentlemen you would ever encounter. Calm and courteous, he could easily pass for a clergyman in a mistaken uniform. He is a journalist’s darling.

Those who have encountered him always describe the former spokesman of ECOMOG as a wonderful human being who is either in the wrong profession or is working with his hands tied ─ military-style. He picks his calls, replies text messages promptly and politely says “I have no such information” or “I will get back to you” when the subject is very sensitive.

But Olukolade goofed on Tuesday when he confirmed that some of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls had been released. Millions of Nigerians had been anxious to hear some news ─ anything positive at all ─ about the girls who have been in captivity since April 14. Recent military successes against Boko Haram had also raised the hope that a breakthrough was around the corner.

The rumour that the girls had been released, or rescued, was so strong that it was impossible to ignore. The girls were said to have been taken to the Maimalari baracks in Maiduguri, Borno State. TheCable called its contacts in the Chibok community but the calls did not go through. People in Maiduguri said they saw some girls being driven to the barracks in Hilux vehicles.

The national chairman of Chibok association, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, while not confirming that the girls had been rescued, expressed optimism that it would happen “soon” because the military had made serious incursion into the Sambisa forest. He even gave a very informative bit ─ that the girls, who are over 200, were being held in two major camps and that the military had the terrorists cornered.

TheCable put a call through to Olukolade to confirm the development. As it turned out, he had already spoken to Premium Times and the BBC, and merely repeated what he told them: that the girls were now at the barracks in Maiduguri. The media outfits went to town with the story and Nigerians were celebrating like it was Christmas.

Olukolade was to make an about-face shortly after, uncharacteristically denying that he ever confirmed the story. The BBC was forced to report Olukolade’s retraction, and other online newspapers, TheCable inclusive, had to also publish updates reversing the good news. One twitter user, reacting to the retraction, tweeted: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

What went wrong? Given that this is the second time Olukolade has made a mistake on the whereabouts of the Chibok girls, it is inevitable that he would come under public scrutiny again. When the 276 girls (that was the initial figure) were kidnapped in April, he told the media two days later that most of them had returned home, quoting the principal of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Mrs Asabe Kwambura.

However, Asabe  (of the “na only you waka come” saga) denied giving such information. According to her, “Up till now we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students … the security people, especially the vigilantes and the well-meaning volunteers of Gwoza are still out searching for them. The military people, too, are in the bush searching.”

She said only 14 of them had returned as at then ─ while Olukolade said only eight were yet to return. Parents were very disheartened by the false hope. Lydia Ibrahim, whose three cousins were among the kidnapped, told the media: “The military had really gladdened our hearts. But now we are left in confusion. These girls are innocent, we plead that government should do all that they can to help us.”

After the incident, there was an apparent need to discipline the information dissemination process. Olukolade took the back seat, allowing the Borno state government to do the talking. But with politics entering the fray, federal government took over the megaphone again, setting up the National Information Centre, co-ordinated by Mr. Mike Omeri, with the spokespersons of security agencies as members.

Some will argue that Olukolade’s mistake was genuine: he did not intend to give false hope. He probably got half a piece of information and, for whatever reason, let down his guard and told the whole world. On getting to know that the girls in question were on a different mission and that he had spoken too soon, he most likely tried to save his job by denying ever confirming it was Chibok girls in the first place.

In the unlikely event that several local and foreign journalists would conspire to lie against him, Olukolade had apparently dropped the ball and was attempting to save face. But pushing the blame to the journalists is very much unlike him. He could be responding to pressure from his bosses or following his natural instinct as a spokesman ─ a military spokesman for that matter. In which case, he is wearing the right uniform. The cassock won’t fit.