Two years, two months and for Amina Nkeki and daughter Safiyah, 73 days since she plotted her escape from Boko Haram: still counting…
As I write, it has been 803 days of captivity for the Chibok Girls and now 73 since Amina Ali Nkeki escaped from the terror of Boko Haram with her four month old daughter in her arms and her ‘husband’ at her side.
Local hunters found the three on May 17 on the outskirts of Sambisa Forest and what very quickly followed was a photo op meeting with President Buhari, with speeches and promises and publicity. On the day that marked 800, the organisation BBOG (Bring Back Our Girls) along with Nkeki’s family members issued a statement. It turns out, according to Nkeki’s uncle Yakubu Nkeki, the last time he saw his niece, her mother Binta and his four-month-old grandniece Safiyah, was May 19 at that meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja. So, it has been two months and counting for this recent escapee from Boko Haram. Two months and more of being held in a secret location under the assured and guaranteed protection, this time, of the Nigerian government, after a blaze of publicity, ham fisted, insensitive scrutiny, spurious speculation and a revealing of details that broke every rule about protecting the rights of a sexually violated minor.
Bizarre? Yes.
Incomprehensible? Yes.
Strange in the context? Not if you know the country you are dealing with.
Nigerian? Definitely.
Certainly a debriefing of victim of abduction is to be expected and clearly it would be conducted following an assessment of her health mentally and physically and the immediate assumption of any treatment and rehabilitation required. Any information she would give would be vital for the rescue of the 219 girls still in captivity and provide necessary intelligence for the Nigerian security forces fighting to stop Boko Haram and rescue all its captives. Probably there is no set time forecast on how long this might take, but nobody is expecting instant results, just a commitment to keeping Nigerians informed as a good faith testimony that you recognise your duty and are keeping to your obligation to deliver on it. After all, little time was wasted in dressing up for the photo op. The news could have been delivered without subjecting Amina Ali Nkeki and Safiyah, to peering eyes, from all and sundry, including her former captors.
The rules that Nigerian newspapers have followed for years that made them take measures such as blacking out the faces and eyes of rape victims were tossed aside here. Was there no female voice to suggest a gentler hand?
But here comes the Nigerian “factor”. When Nkeki was abducted on April 14, 2014, along with 279 of her schoolmates, in the middle of exam week, was she a minor or not? The Nigerian Constitution that declares “full age” to be 18 also says that “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age” which acknowledges that marriage of a girl under full age is allowed. (Does this also apply to boys? One is left to wonder.)
In 2013, the Nigerian Senate had the opportunity to consign this section to the history books but baulked.
There are no laws, customary or civil that specify a legal age for marriage and in the religious and cultural quilt (or shall we just say strips?) that makes up Nigeria, wives can range in age from 11 upwards. The Nigerian Criminal code states that any person who has “unlawful carnal knowledge” of a girl under 13 is guilty of a felony and liable to a term of imprisonment for life with or without caning. Further: “If the girl is of or above thirteen and under sixteen years of age, he is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for two years, with or without caning.”
The recent Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act of 2015 does not fancy dance with ‘carnal knowledge’ and states that the punishment for rape could be life imprisonment or if the offender is under 14 years of age a maximum of 14 years of imprisonment. So what now is the significance of reaching the age of 14, for girls and for boys?
This is all a bit like stumbling unguided through Sambisa Forest. We are, as they say, “all over the map” on basic issues that require us to find common ground, if we are agreed on our common destiny.
It is notable that the government can exercise discretion, kindness, even, in the pursuit of money matters, but not in an area that deals with the vulnerability and innocence of a child. Two weeks ago, the vice president was ready to offer a reason why a promised disclosure of the individuals who had quietly returned illegally acquired money had not been honoured, and we are talking billions here: “We have released the list of recovered loot, we know people are asking for the names, but releasing the names may jeopardise ongoing investigations,” Professor Osibajo said. Unsatisfying and indeed frustrating for an electorate that has been promised a war against corruption, but it is an acceptable reason that indicates a process has been set in motion and implies much more is going to be done.
But will there be? And in time? News reports that the president’s chief of staff made moves to suppress an investigation because he was implicated, can lead quickly to a loss of faith from the populace and a backlash back down the slippery path. News like this requires decisive action to stem any perception that the regime is losing course on the one issue it staked its campaign on. Less than three years to go before another presidential election and no big fish in the net yet.
Navigating the high pressure points of Nigeria’s cultural, religious and political landscape has for a long time been like walking a tightrope or tip toeing on a cliff edge: except it has not been. We just seem to keep stumbling on. A leader has to identify common ground, find purchase and stake his tenure on it.
A woman is beheaded in a Kaduna market. The act is a crime of murder, the police must get to it. And they do, and to his credit the president does not beat about the bush on this matter.
“Herdsmen” have been accused of “causing carnage” as they seek for land to graze their cattle, not today, not yesterday, not even last month, but for six months at least. This act is a crime, with a nationwide impact, whatever else may be behind it all, and one would hope that ascertaining the facts will also be part of bringing those guilty to justice. The president should have been quick to address this and not have allowed newspapers to lead with the headline “Buhari breaks silence, orders herdsmen brought to justice.”
There is a joke doing the rounds that the president’s eardrums are recoiling from the din of the country’s problems, so he had to go far, flying over the mother continent and an ocean, to fix his earache in Britain. While he was away, and before he left, a humanitarian catastrophe was growing at Bama Camp, a holding place for 24,000 refugees who had fled Boko Haram. Nigerian troops recaptured Bama in March of 2015, more than a year and three months ago. That concerted sweep of Boko Haram took place after a decision to postpone the elections so that Nigerians could vote in peace. That election resulted in Buhari’s victory at the polls. And no, the news of this does not come from the Ministry of Information whose head told the press that the government was working “silently” to end the carnage by “herdsmen”. The story comes from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and international news agencies such as Al Jazeera. Appeals for help and medical volunteers have been going out on Twitter since the story broke last week.
That Nigerians who have escaped the terror of Boko Haram are now dying of starvation and disease in a camp is completely indefensible.
Silence is not a strategy. It simply means you are doing nothing.
Two years, two months and for Amina Nkeki and daughter Safiyah, 73 days since she plotted her escape from Boko Haram: still counting…
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