Like wily Sisyphus, Nigeria continues to dither in pain and frustration. One moment, it looks as if we have successfully rolled the stone up the hill; only a second later, we watch as it slips back down again.

Who would have imagined that two-and-a-half years through his four-year term, President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power on a rainbow of hope, would be shrouded in dark clouds of uncertainty? His Government began with a considerable store of goodwill in the bank. Its account is now heavily overdrawn.

Buhari announced at his inauguration on 29 May 2015 that the defeat of the terrorist group Boko Haram would be incomplete if all the Chibok girls – the 276 female students kidnapped from a secondary school in the town of Chibok in Borno State in April 2014 – were not rescued.