Chibok girls on my mind

In the beginning the insurgency, serious as it has been was merely seen by many Nigerians as one skirmish happening in a distant, far flung extremity of the North- east part of Nigeria. The virtual daily killings by the insurgents, elicited the usual confused mortification from Nigerians who wonder whether indeed the gory occurrences were […]

In the beginning the insurgency, serious as it has been was merely seen by many Nigerians as one skirmish happening in a distant, far flung extremity of the North- east part of Nigeria. The virtual daily killings by the insurgents, elicited the usual confused mortification from Nigerians who wonder whether indeed the gory occurrences were indeed happening in actual fact. They duly spare them a thought for a moment or two when the bombings and the bloodletting occur and thereafter continue with their preoccupations.
The abduction of the Chibok girls changed Nigerians hitherto lukewarm and ambivalent attitude to the seriousness of the insurgency. It gave rise to an instant and groundswell of outrage across the length and breadth of the country, most especially from women who perhaps saw the incident and government’s initial inappropriate response to it, as a demonstration of insensitivity to the plight of the girls. The rage that was occasioned may very well have been because government was seen not to be acting appropriately in response due to the gender of those involved. Anyway, the abduction of the girls imbued the anger against the insurgency a ferocious immediacy that prompted people to come out en -mass to register their distastes about official less than appropriate response to a grave matter. In no time the protests caught on worldwide while the signature “Bring back our girls” went viral.
And so it was that the Chibok girls’ incident drew worldwide attention to what  had been seen as low level local insurgency and  with the  global focus came the urgency and renewed impetus to put a stop to the senseless killings. For some time, there were frenetic activities that included the invitation of foreign counter -insurgency experts from the US and other places which gave the hope that the raging fire of insurgency would soon be put out and the girls would come home. But it is all of three months now that the girls had been carted away, literally. Meanwhile, the groundswell of anger and anxiety that greeted the girls’ abduction which caused people to take to the streets has petered out with everyone going away to mind his or her own business. As if to say, “what is my own, I don do my bit” to put it roughly in pidgin.
Yet lest we forget, the Chibok girls, three months after their abduction still have not come back home. And it is not a laughing matter. Why is this so? Why is there no progress report? Until these issues are resolved no one can go home and think that he can sleep well in the night. Initially assurances were coming from government that everything would be done to bring them back, but such assurances have stopped coming almost altogether, which does not portend a good omen. Attentive followers of the Chibok girls’ ordeal would occasionally get the hint from official utterances that not all the girls would get back in one piece, so to say, if eventually a decision is made one way or the other to force the situation and put an end to the whole dark saga. To be sure, the hint may be a subtle way of preparing the minds of Nigerians for the worst.
In actual fact one would be deluded to think some 300 school girls plucked, as it were, from the safety of their school and taken into the harsh and perilous environment of Sambisa forest or some other sinister place, subjected not only to the cruel treatment of their abductors but also left to the mercy of the elements would not suffer any calamities at all. Stories of broken limbs and distracted colleagues told by the lucky few able to escape indicate the hellish reality the girls are languishing in, so soul -crushing that it will be too much for the girls to bear.
Even so, all hope is not lost that the situation is not beyond salvaging to the benefit of the girls themselves, their parents, the Chibok community and the nation at large. The fact that government is averse to using force to secure their freedom was underscored by the decision of the council of state urging that the girls be rescued alive. The former leaders rose from a three hour meeting last Tuesday, the 8th of July, with most of them in attendance and decided that the girls be rescued alive.  Certainly that injunction precludes any excessive deployment of force beyond perhaps the one that would merely demobilise their assailants. It is also a vote for dialogue with the insurgents, which ostensibly has been commenced anyway and on -going, though government sometimes publicly makes a show of its reluctance on that course of action for fear of being seen to have kowtowed to the insurgents. An eminently sensible attitude surely, considering that a government perceived to be appeasing murderers and cutthroats who have brought pain and violence on Nigerians would be doomed to failure at the polls. It would be seen as spineless and overly ready to grant the demands of outlaws that have been traumatising citizens. And that would be a reaction that can hardly be faulted too.
Yet the exigency of dialogue, particularly with lives of the huge number of people involved, has become imperative and all-too important to resolve the imbroglio of the Chibok girls.  Mercifully for government it can now proceed with the dialogue with the outlaws, distasteful as it may be, without losing face or court the opprobrium of Nigerians, now that it has received the full support of former leaders. Judging by the seriousness of the matter one or two of them could even be persuaded to do the gruesome business of negotiating on the part of government in order to further lend the whole process the needed trust and respectability.  It should be stated that when the process proper starts, no one should be surprised that the issue of amnesty would be top of the agenda of “our friends” on the other side, along with lesser ones concerning freedom for well heeled arsonists and bomb lobbing fellows who callously put an end to vibrant young men and women in the prime of their lives.
These and other soulless demands fit to make one flinch and bolt out of the dialogue process entirely would be made because they will be surreal to contemplate and even unjustifiable and unthinkable to grant. But these are not normal times and too much blood has been shed already which makes any rationalisation well nigh disingenuous and counter -productive. For the sake of the Chibok girls and peace of the larger society no outcome must be foreclosed. If the end is to put an end to the violence and re-integrate the broken North-east portion back into Nigeria, in other to reset it according to nationwide norms then granting even the most atrocious demands is well worth it, knowing full well that it is all for the benefit of Nigeria.