Nigeria and Australia clash over assistance for Chibok girls

There seem to be some form of controversy over the assistance which Australia is purported to have offered towards the rescue of the abducted Chibok girls as Nigeria is insisting it has no record of such offer from Australia.

Australia had said on Thursday that it had conveyed its willingness on several occasions to Nigeria to deploy its special forces to assist in the rescue of the girls.

The Australian government, speaking through their embassy claimed to have made the offer through the “normal diplomatic channels.”

Okokon Odiongenyi, the Research and Public Affairs Officer of the embassy in an email response to inquiries about the offer, stated on Thursday that the Federal Government failed to take up the offer till date.

 “Australia has offered to provide whatever support the Nigerian Government believes might be useful in its efforts to secure the release of the girls.   This advice was conveyed through diplomatic channels.

“The Nigerian Government has not sought to take up this offer at this stage. We are also discussing further cooperation in the area of combating terrorism,” the mail read.

Odiongenyi, who spoke further in a telephone interview on Thursday, said the Australian government was desirous of assisting Nigeria to rescue the over 200 abducted schoolgirls, hence its offer of help to the Federal Government.

Asked to mention the specific Nigerian official through whom the offer was made, Odiongenyi said he could not be specific.

He said, “We made the offer to rescue the girls, not once, not twice but several times through the normal diplomatic channels. I can’t disclose the official to whom the message was given, I can’t be more specific than that, but I assure you that we made the offer to the Nigerian government.”

But the Director, Public Relations, Ministry of Information, Amedu Ogbole-Ode, said the ministry had no record of the offer from the Australian government.

“We don’t have a record of the offer from the Australian government, ask them to provide documentary proof if they insist that they made such an offer,” he stated.

 My Take:

What exactly is happening here? Is the Nigerian Government being taken for a fool by other countries or is the Federal Government of Nigeria lying?

It would be very difficult for the Australian Government to be lying about an issue as sensitive as this but if they are indeed telling the true, why then is the Nigerian Government denying the existence of the offer?

So many questions and no answers, meanwhile the girls remain abducted, day 60 and counting?