Karma is “a spiritual principle of cause and effect where the intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual”.

In Buddhism, it refers to “actions driven by intention, a deed done deliberately through body, speech or mind, which leads to future consequences”.

I am not a religious person, but I believe in the universal law of sowing and reaping.

In the summer of 2014, months after the abduction of 276 girls from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) launched a propaganda blitzkrieg against the government of former President Jonathan owing largely to its pusillanimous handling of the crisis.

Former President Jonathan’s dalliance exacerbated the Chibok abduction snag no doubt, but the APC and its propaganda armada made an inferno out of the problem – through distortion and contortion of facts, spread of falsehood and hate speeches, and by forensic manipulation and deception – which consumed the former government.

I remember on 10 May, 2014, the APC leadership paid Kashim Shettima, Borno state governor, a visit. At the meeting, Tijanni Musa Tumsa, the interim national secretary of the party, said the abduction was as a result of Jonathan’s incompetence.

Here him: “Let me make very bold to say here that the Boko Haram insurgency was a product of federal government’s incompetent fight against insurgency in the north for over three years.”

Would I be guilty of hate speech, if I say the reported abduction of 94 schoolgirls from a secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe State, is as a result of President Buhari’s incompetence?

The APC savaged the Chibok abduction crisis; it made bountiful political capital out of it. And all this happened in the year before the 2015 general election just as the Dapchi schoolgirls’ abduction is happening in the year before the 2019 general election. Is karma a bitch?

However, I must commend President Buhari for his prompt response to the sad incident. He did not wait for two weeks to respond to the misadventure like former President Jonathan, who dilly-dallied on the Chibok abduction, after binging on conspiracy theories from the sycophants in his courts.

I believe this should be a teaching moment for the APC and other political parties. Building a political campaign on the rostrum of malice and divisiveness is counterproductive.

However, this is not a time to gloat. The lives of young Nigerians who have done no wrong, but seek to get an education is in peril. We must show the true Nigerian spirit by standing in solidarity with their parents, the people of Yobe State and the government.

•Fredrick is a journalist. You can reach him on Twitter: @FredrickNwabufo, Facebook: Fredrick Nwabufo

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