Column
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| By Maureen Chigbo |
AS Nigerians joined the world to celebrate Children’s Day on May 27 and the Day of the Africa Child June 16, two prominent questions agitate the minds of people. The first is when will the Chibok girls be rescued from their captivity to freely partake in such celebrations? Secondly, how could world leaders have failed to rescue these school children more than two years after their kidnap? There are no easy answers especially to the second question given the scope of technology and intelligence gathering gadgets that are now available to the world to track and trace the where about of the ill-equipped captors of more than 200 abducted school girls. The Chiboks were kidnapped from their school hostel by Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014. It has been two long dreary years for both the children and their families. Two long dreadful years that Africa and they world failed woefully to rescue and secure the life of these children. This must continue to be a sad metaphor of the inability of leaders Africa in particular to provide security for its citizenry, especially for children who ought to be the leaders of tomorrow.
Suffice it state that shortly after their abduction, there was global outcry with world leaders promising to assist Nigeria to rescue the Chibok Girls. Then the hopes of the parents were raised by the massive global support that very soon their children will be rescued. Protests held across the globe. Even Michelle Obama, wife of American president joined the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Sadly, two years after, the families are still living in agony, worried sick about the fate of their children. It appears that the world have moved on. But the life for these families must have been punctuated as they have no idea whether their children are living or dead. Their feelings must be worse today as they watch another children’s day pass by and once again the federal government will make what must seem to them empty promises of working hard to rescue the children. The parents of the children must be wishing for concrete actions with good outcome. That is to say, that they would like the government to move the heavens and earth to bring back their girls, not giving them platitudes.
Such platitudes came again during the Regional Security Summit which held mid-may in Nigeria. At the summit President Muhammadu Buhari said when his administration assumed office on May 29, 2014, “our first task was to tackle and defeat Boko Haram. We restructured and re-equipped our armed forces; we strengthened our cooperation with the Lake Chad Basin Commission Members and Benin. By December the armed forces of Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad and Niger degraded Boko Haram and squeezed them into a small enclave of Sambisa Forest….. What remains is to dislodge the terrorists from their hide out in Sambisa forest and safely liberate the Chibok Girls and other victims of abduction.”
Since Buhari made this speech several things have happened in quick succession to give hope to Nigerians and to the world that indeed Boko Haram will soon be a thing past and with that come the liberation of Chibok girls. On the other hand, there are developments that also raise doubt as to how soon the war with Boko Haram will end. The first was the escape of two of out of more than 200 Chibok girls who were abducted from the school in Chibok in Borno State, Northeastern Nigeria on April 14, 2014, from the Sambisa forest.
The two girls who renewed this hope with their freedom are Amina Ali Nkeki, who came back with a four-month old baby on Tuesday, May 17, and Sera Luka who was rescued on Thursday, May 19. Nkeki, was given a red carpet treatment when she was received at the Aso Villa, Abuja, by Nigerian President Buhari.
Luka’s rescue was confirmed by Usman Sani Kukasheka, army spokesman, who broke the news, saying she is believed to be the daughter of Pastor Luka, one of the parents of the missing girls. Kukasheka said the girl is number 157 on the list of the 219 Chibok girls in captivity. But the #BringBackOurGirls, a group that has been strident in pushing for the rescue of the girls disputed the claims of the military that Luka was among the kidnapped girls. This dissension further lends weapon to those who still contest that the story of missing Chibok girls was a scam. This group of dissenters found expression in Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, South West, Nigeria, who recently said that there was no such thing as missing Chibok girls. This group thinks that the present rescue story was all stage managed to give impetus to a president who has failed to keep his promise to rescue the missing one year after assume office. This group of dissenters say that it took the world 10 years to realise that there was no weapons of mass destruction given by America and Britain as reasons to invade Iraq, quipping that perhaps it could take another 10 years for the real truth behind the missing Chibok school girls to be uncovered.
Whatever, President Buhari spoke the minds of many when he received Amina in Abuja. He said: “Like others all over the world, I’m delighted that Amina Ali, one of the missing Chibok girls, has regained her freedom. But my feelings are tinged with deep sadness on the horrors the girl has had to go through at such an early stage in her life. Although we cannot do anything to reverse the horrors of her past, the federal government can and will do everything possible to ensure that the rest of her life takes a completely different course.”
He promised that his administration would continue to do whatever it can to rescue the Chibok girls who are still in Boko Haram’s captivity. “Amina’s rescue gives us new hope and offers a unique opportunity to vital information.”
But the second incident that made the presidents promise sound hollow is the report on May 26, that Boko Haram, has retaken five communities in Borno State and killed about 14 people. Just last week, the terrorist attacked an army fortress in Borno, North Eastern killing and maiming people. The spate of suicide attack which has claimed thousands of people since 2019 when the insurgency started has not abated. These developments must have prompted Beatrice Ubeku, country focal person of the West African Women Association at its maiden Children’s Day’s celebration in Nigeria to state that with the escalating rate of insecurity the federal government should rescue the Chibok girls without further delay, to cut down the excruciating suffering of the children, women and the communities affected.
Most Nigerians and the world are waiting anxiously for a united global action to rescue and secure the life of the Chibok girls. Then and only then will Children’s day have meaning for the parents and families of the abducted Chibok girls and to the world at large. Otherwise, the abducted girls, still in captivity, will continue to weigh on the conscience of the world especially that of the world leaders who failed to keep their promise of rescuing them.
— Jul 27, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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