It is unfortunate that humanity is watching with seeming helplessness as the Islamic State of West Africa Province faction of Boko Haram massacres women and girls in Nigeria in circumstances that leave a bad taste in the mouth. The killing of the International Committee of the Red Cross midwife, Hauwa Liman, by Boko Haram clearly indicates that the other women and girls still in captivity are in extreme danger.
With the expiration of the October 15 deadline given to the Federal Government to pay ransom for the release of the Dapchi lone schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, and the remaining two aid workers, Boko Haram, went ahead to execute Liman and threatened to keep Sharibu and Alice Ngaddah as slaves. Leah, the only Christian among the 110 girls abducted from the Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19, 2018. While her schoolmates were released, Leah was kept back because she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
The Federal Government should show more commitment to saving and securing the lives of its citizens especially vulnerable women and girls. The passion with which the Buhari administration goes about its political matters, particularly its bid to be re-elected in 2019 should also be manifested in ensuring that the people it is seeking almost desperately to continue to govern are alive and well. Undoubtedly, the impunity with which Boko Haram executes the female folks after subjecting them to slavery, sometimes for years, has to do with the government’s obvious inaction in terms of adopting the best possible strategies in getting the hostages back.
The recent brazen trend of point-blank execution of captives which the insurgents have resorted to and the frequent attacks on the Nigerian Army bases, point to the fact that the insurgency has taken a somewhat serious and more complex dimension. Perhaps, the persistence of these devastating occurrences despite the relentless advocacy by civil society and international humanitarian organisations, indicates that a more fundamental approach to designing strategies against these seemingly entrenched bloodbaths must be sought for.
Like many Nigerians, one is horrified at the thought of the terror Khorsa and Hauwa must have endured and the fear of futility in the expectation for the return of Sharibu, Ngaddah and other remaining girls and women still held under Boko Haram. This is why we all must join in raising our voices for more innovative and creative strategies towards ending violent extremism in the North-East, whether we live there or not.
Nigerian women and girls are now at the risk of becoming the fodder for the war on terrorism. It is for this reason also that we must be concerned about what the Nigerian government is doing to counter violent extremism and the effectiveness of the strategies to ensure that they are designed and implemented with gender specific and indeed context-specific perspective. That the efforts for the release of the ICRC aid workers, and indeed all the women and children in captivity have so far failed shows that a viable negotiation process driven by the fundamental need to secure the lives of the women and girls under captivity must be considered. To do otherwise would be to the detriment of all.
Both the governance, humanitarian and development strategies should recognise and take into account social complexities of any situation and must also be made to interface with other crucial humanitarian and development dimensions, particularly the immediate gender dimensions, economic, social, political and environmental contextual background of a target zone. That a strategy worked in the past does not automatically infer that it would work again, even in a presumed similar circumstance.
Although it is not clear what the demands from Boko Haram are, what is clear however is that the government has the instrument of power; and also must forestall a recurrence of the destruction of lives and property of Nigerians. Nigerians must be provided with information on what is at stake and what people in crisis affected areas should do to protect themselves.
I call on all stakeholders to join in the fight against violent extremism and more particularly, in ensuring that women and girls are kept safe as they suffer most and have borne the most brunt of terrorism in Nigeria. Any nation that does not protect its weakest and most vulnerable should not expect any form of respect in the comity of nations. As we mourn the murder of Hauwa Liman, let us also pray and work for the immediate release of everyone still in captivity.
Ms Chinwe Onyeukwu, a gender and peace advocate, is the Executive Director of Women Africa
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