President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly spoke on the phone with Mrs Rebecca Sharibu, mother of Miss Leah Sharibu, the 15-year-old girl captured by Boko Haram insurgents, who invaded her school in a Gestapo manner some months ago. Recall that last February, Boko Haram terrorists attacked Dapchi and went straight to the Government Girls Science Technical College, where they kidnapped 110 students.
Since that sad encounter, it is now more than 200 days since the innocent girl was captured alongside 109 other schoolgirls in Dapchi. But, unlike the other captives, Leah remains in the risky hands of the terrorists simply for sticking to her Christian faith. Leah’s case remains a story of heroism in the face of horror that only few adults can ever withstand.
During the call to her mother, President Buhari was said to have assured her that government would do everything possible to bring Leah back home. Good talk. Earlier, Mrs Sharibu and her husband, Nathan, had called on the government to ensure the release of their daughter before the dateline given by the sect, which had threatened to eliminate Leah, should the government fail to meet their demands.
A terribly worried mother at a press conference in Jos, the Plateau State capital, appealed to the President to do all within his power to stop the terrorists from carrying out their threat by ensuring the safe and prompt release of her daughter. The experiences of innocent victims in the hands of nefarious persons such as Boko Haram members are indescribable. According to reports, some of the captive girls are said to have been sold off, held as ‘wives’, sex slaves, servants or brainwashed suicide bombers and constituting another deadly band of terrorism to the society. The courageous Leah, at a tender age of 15, had shown that the inalienable right to choose one’s path in life can be sustained at great danger. For her rare courage, she should be celebrated in these trying times.
Many things have happened to suggest some form of state laxity over Leah’s matter. For instance, it is worrisome that management of information relating to the abducted girls is defective and not good enough, despite the outcry and high profile nature of the case. Going by Mrs Sharibu’s account, the family only gets little information about their daughter from occasional media reports. In the first place, the abduction of Leah and her schoolmates resulted from the government’s inability to uphold constitutional dictates of ensuring the security of life and property. Not only that, there is the suspicion and acrimony that there could be an element of religious persecution in her case, as the terrorists were said to have got the audacity of even preaching and parading the girls round Dapchi before their escape. Eyewitnesses also claimed that the terrorists alluded that they apologised for abducting the girls because they were Muslim girls. This fuelled insinuations that Leah could have been deliberately left out of negotiations that led to the release of the freed girls.
In a highly religious and ethnic sensitive country like Nigeria, there is the need for openness and better information management over delicate matters so that there would not be any iota of doubt and ill-feeling that could portray the state as promoting ethnic or religious agenda. At another time, Leah’s mother had to debunk the rumour that her family took the Federal Government to court, saying they were not aware of such issue, insisting that she was not after money or engaged in any form of deal, saying that her family was only interested in their daughter’s release. This position was being relayed to worsen matters and to give the impression that the parents of the girl remain a stumbling block to getting her freedom.
According to Amnesty International, insufficient troops were deployed in Yobe State. Not only that, absence of regular patrols, failure to respond to early warnings and the refusal to engage Boko Haram representatives at the initial stage to sue for peace might have precipitated the plight of the girls. In places where the lives of citizens are paramount, including those of the weakest and most vulnerable, government often goes to any length to ensure the security of its citizens and when eventually threatened, it moves in to bring them to safety at great cost. Every responsive nation faces the challenge of having to stand up for its citizens in one way such as negotiating or dealing with violent groups, just to achieve one thing — secure the freedom of citizens whose liberty had been curtailed.
While commending the nation’s security forces for their efforts at curbing terrorism, there is a need for more synergy, transparency and better information management. The telephone call by the President is in order but beyond this, Nigerians would be happier to see the incarcerated girls hale and hearty.
Adewale Kupoluyi, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, adewalekupoluyi@yahoo.co.uk
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