Today is exactly two years since over 200 Chibok school girls were abducted from their school by Boko Haram terrorist group as all efforts to rescue them proved futile. JOHN NWOKOCHA presents the sober moments of the families since the past 730 days.
In the Beginning
As you read this story today is exactly 730 days since over 200 school girls from Government Girls Secondary School, in Chibok Borno state have been missing in what has gone down in history as first mass abduction. On the night of April14, 2016 about 276 female students of the school were abducted by a dreaded terrorist group known as Boko Haram, a development that shocked not only Nigerians but also the entire world and sent both local and international rescue missions to action. Fortunately, 57 of the schoolgirls managed to escape making 219 still missing. On October 17, 2014, hopes were raised that the 219 remaining girls might soon be released after the Nigerian army announced a truce between the insurgents and government forces.
The initial doubts expressed by the government under President Goodluck Jonathan did not help matters, because rather than swing into prompt action, it took the authorities 19 days after to discuss a matter as important as this. When the government dimed it fit to discuss the issue it could not give intelligence report to confirm the whereabouts of the abducted girls.
On Wednesday, March 30, 2015, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose declared that no pupil was abducted by Boko Haram from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.
According to the governor, reports about the Chibok abduction were merely part of the propaganda aimed at sealing the fate of the Jonathan administration ahead of the 2015 general elections.
“I don’t think any of these girls is missing; it is a political strategy. Who is fooling who? If you wanted to use it to remove some people, you have succeeded already.
“I don’t know if there are missing girls but no indication has shown that. It is a political strategy, because I don’t think any girl is missing. If they are missing, let them find them,” Fayose said while declaring open a two-day workshop on “Political Aspirants’ Capacity Enhancement” organised by Women Arise for Change Initiative for women from Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states.
But sadly two years after the girls are still missing with no clear trace of their whereabouts, although rumours about one of the girls calling her father’s GSM phone from an unknown location surfaced yesterday as if to chide the efforts to bring back the girls as well as diminish the significance of discussions on the kidnapped girls chances of rescue. However, if the telephone stunt is meant to refresh hope for recovery of the girls the reality is that hope of getting the girls out some day is high. Two years after, the unexpected can happen and the girls will walk into freedom and tell their own story.
Fatima Tabji, Eli Joseph, Hauwa Isuwa, Maryamu Lawan, Tabitha Silas, Ladi Joel, Maryamu Yakubu, Zara Ishaku, Lydia Habila, Laraba Yahonna, Na’omi Bitrus, Rahila Yahanna, Ruth Lawan, Ladi Paul, Mary Paul, Esther Joshua, Helen Musa, Deborah Abge, Awa Abge, Hauwa Yirma, Asabe Manu, Mwa Malam pogu, Patiant Dzakwa, Saraya Mal. Stover, Mary Dauda, Gloria Mainta, Hanatu Ishaku, Gloria Dama, Awa James, Esther Markus, Hana Stephen, Rifkatu Amos, Rebecca Mallum, Ladi Wadai, Tabitha Hyelampa, Ruth Ngladar, Na’omi Yahonna, Solomi Titus, Rhoda John, Rebecca Kabu, Debora Yahonna, Naomi Zakaria, Hanatu Musa, Hauwa Tella, Saraya Paul, Jummai Paul, Mary Sule, are amongst the 219 abducted girls still missing. Undoubtedly, they each have dreams and aspirations of becoming doctors, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs, civil servants, fashion designers, politicians, actresses, nurses, etc.
Boko Haram hostage
Leader of the group at the time Abubakar Shekau, had boasted to sell the girls off into slave marriage. With this the whole globe was alarmed and prompted intensified search for the girls. To corroborate this, early in May, 2014, a video recording surfaced, showing Abubakar Shekau, claiming responsibility for the abduction of over 200 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State.
In the video that lasted about an hour, he threatened to give the abducted students out in marriage
“I am going to marry out any woman who is 12 years old and if she is younger I will marry her out at the age of nine just like how my mother, Aisha, the daughter of Abubakar, was married out to Prophet Mohammad at the age of nine”.
“I am the one who captured all those girls and will sell all of them. I have a market where I sell human beings because it is God that says I should sell human beings. Yes I will sell women, because I sell women.”
Till date there is no evidence about how far he has gone with his threat nevertheless, it remains indubitable that anxiety persists in the mind of many who continue to imagine the fate the Chibok girls may have suffered in the hands of their captors.
Global and domestic concerns continue
Most people around the world heard of Boko Haram for the first time when a Twitter-savvy Nigerian in Abuja, came up with the hash tag, #BringBackOurGirls, after the Chibok girls’ abduction.
Hitherto, the abduction of hundreds, if not thousands, had gone almost unreported, as was the massacre at a boys’ boarding school in Buni Yadi less than two months earlier, in which 59 boys were shot dead or had their throats slit. Boys who refused to comply with instant recruitment orders from Boko Haram commanders were said instant victims of gory massacres that took place in various villages across the Boko Haram areas of operation in the Northeast.
In the past two years groups campaigning for the return of the girls have been resolute and kept hope on top of the situation.
Hear Aisha Yusuf, one of the leading activists in BBOG in Nigeria, “On this, we stand; no retreat, no surrender”.
“It remains the duty of the Nigerian government to rescue the Chibok girls – all 219 of them and we will not give up on that,” she added.
In the same vein, former Education Minister Mrs Oby Ezekwesili has relentlessly mobilised global attention to the plight of the girls, but two years on, the girls are still far away from home. With the efforts of the bringbackourgirls activists the campaign hit the social media and the consciousness of millions of people across the globe got woken up. In Nigeria and abroad, legions of youth have tweeted or written some messages on the issue of the missing Chibok girls.
The United States of America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama was among mothers in distant climes who stridently re-echoed the BBOG campaign message.
Similarly Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai criticised Nigerian leaders for not doing enough to find the girls.
The 17year-old Malala, who rose to international fame after she survived an attempted murder by the Pakistani Taliban for her advocacy of free education for girls, said Nigerian leaders and the international community must do more to help the girls.
“In my opinion, Nigerian leaders and the international community have not done enough to help you,” she said in a letter to the girls, whom she called “my brave sisters”.
“I am among many people pressuring them to make sure you are freed,” Malala continued. “Remember that one day your tragic ordeal will end, you will be reunited with your families and friends, and you will have the chance to finish the education you courageously sought.
“I look forward to the day I can hug each one of you, pray with you and celebrate your freedom with your families. Until then, stay strong, and never lose hope. You are my heroes.”
Malala wrote the letter on the eve of the first anniversary of the mass kidnapping. Last July, she urged the Nigerian government to focus on the search of the missing girls during a meeting with the girls’ relatives in Abuja, Borno State.
“If you don’t focus on the future generation it means you are destroying your country. Think about these girls,” she said during the meeting.
Only last Friday, activists under the auspices of the BBOG campaign began one week of activities aimed at further drawing attention to the Chibok girls who have been missing for about two years now.
The ‘Global Week of Action’ started on Friday, April with Islamic prayers and teachings, along with prayers in several mosques in Nigeria and other parts of the world. At Unity Fountain, in the heart of Abuja where the BBOG campaigners have always held their activities, both Sheikh Nura Khalid and Ustaz Abdulfatah Adeyemi were invited to deliver lectures on the topics: “Importance of Girl-Child Education in Islam” and “Islamic Prohibition of Forced Marriages.” Church activities and special Christian worship/prayers took place on Sunday, ahead of other events during the week.
Sophisticated satellite surveillance, otherwise referred to as “Eyes in the sky” recorded only one possible sighting about two months into the girls’ disappearance. A rescue attempt for the fraction sighted around a ‘tree of life’ in Sambisa forest was deemed unfeasible.
Several times, teams of foreign experts and RAF Sentinel spy planes were quietly scaled down, pulled out, or re-assigned to more pressing theatres of conflict like Syria and Iraq.
Besides, series of attempts to negotiate towards effecting the girls’ release all fell through due to a lack of reliable go-betweens.
So far, the best efforts by the world have remained fruitless. Much has been said and done, yet the question remains: where are the Chibok girls?
Military efforts
In May last year, it was reported that the military had reclaimed most of the areas previously controlled by the insurgents, 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 were found.
In January this year, the military was reported to have freed 1,000 women held captive by Boko Haram. But none of the Chibokgirls was amongst the women. Just this week, hopes were again dashed when the government denied reports that the insurgents were demanding $50 million from it as ransom before releasing the abducted girls. Daily, the military is reportedly demolishing more terrorists camps, defusing improvised explosive devices, setting free more people but even after so much of that, seeing or hearing about Chibok girls has remained more of a fantasy.
“On 1st March 2016, troops of 155 Task Force Battalion received 10,000 refugees from the Republic of Cameroon at Banki and Bama axis”. Said Acting Director of Army Public Relations, Sani Usman in a statement.
Cost
According to governor of Borno state, Kashim Shettma up to $6 billion (N2 trillion) has gone down the drains, about 20,000 people killed and two million others displaced.
While he expressed hope for the state’s future, Shettima said the $6 billion financial losses do not include losses incurred by local and international businesses located in the capital city, Maiduguri, noting that a branch of one of the first generation banks in Maiduguri was processing over a billion naira daily, the biggest cash centre in the country.
He said reversing the pestilential imprints of Boko Haram across the entire Northeast of the federation will not be easy.
Shettima also criticised the rate of corruption in the country and berated Nigerians that stole so much to the extent of stealing funds meant for the army to fight insurgency. He called it immoral and the height of wickedness against one’s kinsmen and the nation in general.
Indeed trillions of Naira has thoughtlessly leaked through Nigeria’s defence and security systems over the years. One of the corruption cases currently being prosecuted in court by the anti-graft agency, EFCC is the one involving former Chief of Air Staff, Alexander Badeh. One of the allegations against him is that while he was in office, he allegedly pocketed some N558.2 million from Defence votes every passing month.
Reality and expectations
For parents and relatives of the girls, the past two years have been spent with untold agony, grief and dreams. So far, efforts by government and agencies have remained fruitless. Reported sightings of them have been negligible these days. Recently, Hosea Tsambido, Chairman of Chibok Community in Abuja, stated that words cannot suffice in explaining the pains gnawing through the hearts of parents of the abducted Chibok girls.
“I can confirm to you that at least eighteen parents of these girls have died because of the stress and anxiety caused by the abduction,” Tsambido said. He spoke shortly after members of the BringBackOurGirls Group concluded the first part of weeklong memorial events at the Unity Fountain in Abuja.
Much has been said and done, yet the question is: where are the Chibok girls? On assumption of office on May29 last year President Muhammadu Buhari vowed to find the missing girls. Indeed his ten months old administration has demolished the dreaded Sambisa forests occupied by the terrorists and equally downgraded Boko Haram, with all these the girls have not been rescued. The on going war against Boko Haram cannot not be said to have been won without the safe return of the abducted Chibok girls. This raises a pertinent question as to whether the government should attempt a different strategy of negotiation with the Boko Haram members.