150 days: Any hope for the Chibok schoolgirls?

About 50 out of the 274 girls have managed to escape from their captors, according to reports. The schoolgirls were seized on April 14, 2014 from their hostels by gunmen disguised as security operatives.  Though the Chibok incident is not the first that happened in Borno State, as reports have shown, it made the most […]

About 50 out of the 274 girls have managed to escape from their captors, according to reports. The schoolgirls were seized on April 14, 2014 from their hostels by gunmen disguised as security operatives.  
Though the Chibok incident is not the first that happened in Borno State, as reports have shown, it made the most impact considering the number of girls involved and their ages.
The abduction attracted the attention of both national and international media, top personalities and celebrities as well as organisations.
Sympathisers within and outside the country have expressed concern in various ways over the incident, which many describe as unfortunate. Series of protests have been staged in the country and abroad under the auspices of various nongovernmental organisations and women groups in order to make the Nigerian government expedite action to rescue the young schoolgirls.
A movement, known as the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) campaigners, was formed by a group of Nigerians who have been staging a daily sit out in an effort to keep the Chibok issue on the front burner.
However, despite the concern shown worldwide over the incident, it took the federal government several days to start addressing the issue. President Goodluck Jonathan also agreed to meet with the parents of the Chibok schoolgirls at the instance of the Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai.
Malala, who survived a gun attack by the Taliban in Pakistan, voiced her concern to President Jonathan on girls who are out of school or who are still being held by Boko Haram.
When the President gave his words to Malala, the parents of the kidnapped girls and indeed Nigerians were hopeful that the girls could be rescued.  
Also, the hopes of parents, relations and other concerned bodies to see the kidnapped girls rescued alive were raised when the American security agents claimed to have sighted the spot where the schoolgirls were held; said to be  in the Sambisa forest. Likewise, when the Nigerian government announced that it knew where the girls were kept, many people thought that the girls would not stay long in captivity.
When the leader of Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau released a video showing some of the abducted girls, with some parents even identifying their daughters, it further raised the hope of their rescue, since the video confirmed that they were at least alive.
However, 150 days after the kidnap, no one has come up with reliable information about the condition of the girls much less rescuing and subsequently reuniting them with their respective families.
Speaking on the development, Rose Musa, a mother of two and a resident of Abuja, said the seeming inability to rescue the abducted Chibok girls by the government will send a negative message to young girls who want education. “Those young girls were abducted for no other crime than trying to acquire education. If the government fails to rescue them, it will be a setback for the girl-child education campaign, especially in the North East.  The President therefore needs to reassure the parents of the abducted girls as well as the nation.”
Also commenting on the abduction of the schoolgirls, Chiney Ogwumike, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants who became the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft on the very same night the girls were taken, said she had to ask her mother when she first heard the news if it was true that an entire school of 16- to 18-year-olds had been abducted.
Ogwumike told Sally Jenkins of the Washignton Post that “Along with water, shelter and food, education is a fundamental right. They were put in jeopardy because of that. This is a group of young women targeted for trying to further themselves, and that’s why it’s reached an international crisis.”
Meanwhile, some parents of the kidnapped schoolgirls have since died of shock, while many others were hospitalised as their health conditions continue to deteriorate on a daily basis as a result of the worry and anxiety brought on them by the incident.
Recent reports from Chibok have indicated that some parents of the girls holding final prayers for their beloved ones.
Five months after the incident, no one knows whether these captured girls could be rescued in the near future or not. However, prayers have been intensified at mosques and churches for the safety of the girls.
 Certainly, many Nigerians have reasons to sympathise with the affected families. Apart from truncating the educational carriers of the affected girls, the possibility of reuniting them with their relations or of continuing with their education remains uncertain.