The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina said that proaction is not always the go-to response and that there “is nothing wrong about being reactive”.
Speaking on whether a ransom was paid for the release of the students, Adesina was tight-lipped; he said that Nigerians would be informed by the government if a ransom was paid or not as it wasn’t his duty to speak on behalf of the government because “I speak for the president”.
He said that each case was addressed based on “its peculiarities”, and that negotiations shouldn’t be ruled out.
Adesina said, “It is easy to say negotiations and dialogue should not be done but to the President, each situation is taken according to its peculiarities.
“If ransom was paid, the government will tell the country and if ransom was not paid, it will say so.
“If there was payment, it will be disclosed and if there was payment, it will not be my duty because I speak for the President. The President will not be the one to pay the ransom, the agencies that will pay the ransom have spokesmen who can confirm or deny whether ransoms were paid.
“I can assure you that the abducted students will be released at the shortest possible time. That is why the government is working; federal government, state government, inter-agency collaboration, everything is being done to bring those schoolgirls back.
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“When the abductions of the students happened, how do they end? We had Dapchi, they were recovered. We had Kankara, they were recovered. We had Kagara, they were recovered. We are working on Jangebe in Zamfara now. You look at the end results.
“This is a vast country with security challenges. There could be glitches, there could be shortcomings in one area of the other but how do those things end. So, give some credit to this government.
“There is nothing wrong about being reactive, you can’t be proactive about everything. In security, there will be things you will also react to. Yes, you can be proactive about certain things but the truth is that you cannot prevent everything.
“No single country in the world has been able to prevent security challenges but the speed with which you react and the efficiency with which you react will matter.”
