This study examines the response of the Jonathan administration to the 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls in Chibok, Nigeria. This study was designed to show the relationship between gender policy, security, and state-based patriarchy and has a time frame of between April 2014 and May 2015. This study analyzes the Jonathan Administration’s national agenda, the archives of Nigerian and Western newspapers, and Youtube videos of press conferences about the kidnapping in order to understand the administration’s commitment to improving the lives of Nigerian girls. Using feminist theory as a framework, this study argues that the lack of urgency to rescue the kidnapped Chibok girls was a result of the inability of the Jonathan administration to articulate and enforce a clear national strategy on gender-based development and that the weak responses carried out by the Jonathan administration was a performance of productivity designed to mislead the Nigerian community and the world. Finally, this study affirms that the actions of the Jonathan administration post-kidnapping was influenced by the patriarchal idea that the lives of Nigerian girls and are less valuable than boys.
