Just as it crossed my mind to write this week about the still-missing Chibok schoolgirls, Prof. Wole Soyinka (our own WS), yet again reminded us all, a couple of days ago, of that terrible blot on the nation’s conscience (if the country has one). Speaking at the official opening of a “Mega-school” named after him in Ejigbo, State of Osun, by the governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, WS lamented that “It is a shame that the nation cannot account for over 200 girls in Chibok,” even as we speak.
It is difficult for me to get my mind round the very fact that over 200 secondary schoolgirls kidnapped by the sadistic terrorist group, Boko Haram, since April last year (a year and 7 months ago) are still missing; that the country the poor schoolgirls called their own could go to sleep for one day, talk less of 540 days, unable to determine their whereabouts, talk less moving to bring them back home!
And what has brought the plight of the kidnapped schoolgirls heavily on my mind is the (high?) probability that the Boko Haram menace will not last a day longer than this December. That’s the deadline assured us by our no-nonsense new president, MuhammaduBuhari, a retired general at that. The end of December 2015 is barely 40 days away. forty days and Boko Haram will be history on our soil? O, really?
“On the night of 14–15 April 2014, a group of militants attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. They broke into the school, pretending to be guards, telling the girls to get out and come with them.A large number of students were taken away in trucks, taken away possibly into the Kondugaarea of the Sambisa Forest where Boko Haram were known to have fortified camps. Houses in Chibok were also burned down in the incident.The school had been closed for four weeks prior to the attack due to the deteriorating security situation, but students from multiple schools had been called in to take final exams in physics.
“There were 530 students from multiple villages registered for the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, although it is unclear how many were in attendance at the time of the attack. The children were aged 16 to 18 and were in their final year of school. Over the 19–20 April weekend, the military released a statement that said more than 100 of 129 kidnapped girls had been freed. However, the statement was retracted, and on 21 April, parents said 234 girls were missing. A number of the students escaped the kidnappers in two groups. According to the police, approximately 276 children were taken in the attack, of whom 53 had escaped as of 2 May (2014).
“Amnesty International said it believes the Nigerian military had four hours’ advance warning of the kidnapping, but failed to send reinforcements to protect the school. Nigeria’s armed forces have confirmed that the Nigerian military had four-hour advance notice of the attack but said that their over-extended forces were unable to mobilise reinforcements.
“The students have been forced to convert to Islam and into marriage with members of Boko Haram, with a reputed “bride-price” of 2,000 each. Many of the students were taken to the neighbouring countries of Chad and Cameroon with sightings reported of the students crossing borders with the militants, and sightings of the students by villagers living in the Sambisa Forest. The forest is considered a refuge for Boko Haram. Local residents have been able to track the movements of the students with the help of contacts across north eastern Nigeria.
“On 4 May, (then) President, Goodluck Jonathan spoke publicly about the kidnapping for the first time, saying the government was doing everything it could to find the missing girls. On 26 May, the Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff announced that the Nigerian security forces had located the kidnapped girls, but ruled out a forceful rescue attempt for fears of collateral damage.
“On 30 May (2014), it was reported that a civilian militia in the Baale region of Northeastern Nigeria found two of the kidnapped girls raped, “half-dead,” and tied to a tree. Villagers said the Boko Haram group had left the two girls, and killed four other disobedient girls and buried them. 223 were still missing.
“On 26 June (2014), it was announced that Levick, a Washington, D.C. Public Relations firm, had received “a contract worth more than $1.2 million” from the government of Nigeria to work on “the international and local media narrative” surrounding the Chibok schoolgirl kidnapping.
“On 12 October (2014), it was reported that four girls from the original kidnapped group had escaped and walked three weeks to freedom in Nigeria. They said they had been held in a camp in Cameroon and raped every day.
“In May 2015, it was reported that the Nigerian military had reclaimed most of the areas previously controlled by Boko Haram in Nigeria including many of the camps in the Sambisa Forest where it was suspected the Chibok girls had been kept. Although many women had been freed, none of the Chibok girls had been found. It was reported that some of the girls had been sold into slavery for N2,000 each, others had been forcibly married to Boko Haram fighters and they may have been killed.
“On 29 May 2015, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in his inaugural address to the nation said that they could not claim to “have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls and all other innocent persons held hostage by insurgents. (The) government will do all it can to rescue them alive.”
“On 12 June 2015, just two weeks after President Buhari was sworn in, he and his wife Aisha Muhammadu Buhari and the Vice President’s wife Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo met with some mothers of the abducted Chibok girls, a meeting Mrs. Buhari had wanted to hold for a long time.
“On 1 October 2015 the Nigerian Military said it will not be in a hurry to rescue the secondary schoolgirls in Chibok who were abducted in April 2014. The Acting Director, Defence Information, Military Headquarters, Abuja, Col. Rabe Abubakar, noted that while it was of utmost concern to the military to rescue the girls, the operation required adequate patience and planning.”
Before I proceed further, a bit of self-glorification here, if that’s what it is: I am a father, a passionate one at that. Some of my friends insist all they can borrow off me is my devotion to my children. An American medical doctor friend, a psychiatrist, now 90 years old, many years ago called me a “Seahorse.” I guess that’s her own compliment for what she considered my “female” childbearing disposition.
With that, the reader will understand the depth of my agony over the incomprehensibility of the Chibok schoolgirls disappearance into thin-air, literally. So, if I were a father of one of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls (let’s call her Aisha) what would have become of me?
How could I have lived through the last 540 days, each day passing with fading hope and gnashing despair? Would I have scoured through Sambisa Forest, every inch of it, like a mad man that I would have been?
How would my days pass, with me seeing my Aisha through the eyes of every passing girl? What dagger at my heart perceiving her reproachful wonderment that the father she knew and trusted all her life had left her at the mercy of her abductors?
What would I think of former president Jonathan with his wife, of their initial doubts that my daughter and others had truly been kidnapped, of his lethargic response, and of the countless shenanigans of his military leadership and security adviser(s) whose preoccupation was with stealing the country dry under the guise of procuring arms to fight Boko Haram to rescue my daughter? Of the lies, and lies, and lies?
What would I now think of President Buhari who I know at least has some daughters he loves, perhaps as dearly as I love my Aisha? What would I be making of his assurance that there is no more than 40 days to the end of Boko Haram? Would I wonder if he also meant 40 days to see my Aisha?
In his words, “Nigeria would not have defeated Boko Haram without rescuing the Chibok girls.”
Buhari is an officer and a gentleman, and so I believe he meant what he said, but does he know where my Aisha is? Is she still within Nigeria or has she and the other 200-and-something Chibok schoolgirls been taken out of the country where no Buhari can reach? Has Aisha been made a slave and raped? Is my Aisha alive or dead? I cry!
PUNCH
END
Very touching,I almost end crying.