Chibok girls: One year is not one day

I do not have daughters yet, but as someone with sisters, my heart always bleeds and I tend to lose interest in everything whenever it occurs to me that it is now more than a day; but 365 days, more than a week; but 52 weeks and more than a month; but 12 months since […]

I do not have daughters yet, but as someone with sisters, my heart always bleeds and I tend to lose interest in everything whenever it occurs to me that it is now more than a day; but 365 days, more than a week; but 52 weeks and more than a month; but 12 months since the barbaric abduction and enslavement of 276 (now 219 following the escape of 57) final year female students of Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by the monstrous Boko Haram insurgents on 14th April, 2014.
In each of these 365 gruelling days, only God knows the series of abuses these innocent teenage girls were forced to endure in the hands of their callous abductors. They are simply living in hell even though on earth; since they were stripped of their honour, dignity and the right to live freely and happily. As a matter of fact, they no longer have the right to life since their abductors are notorious for slaughtering or killing their victims at any time it pleases them without giving a damn to the sanctity of human life.
Of course, the insurgents are the architects of the bondage that these girls found themselves in as from 14th April till date, but Nigeria’s central government should be blamed for the failure to rescue them since then. Apparent lack of swift and decisive military action to rescue the girls within the first few days of their abduction by the Nigerian government was what, in the long run, condemned them into this long term slavery.
Even the seeming inability of the international community to do much for the Chibok girls (as stressed out by Miss Yousafzai and quoted in the opening part of this article) can be mainly attributed to the slow or lukewarm response of the Nigerian government to rescue the girls as strongly argued by one of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group’s spokesman, Mr. Seun Idowu: “It is the way the president (Goodluck Jonathan) has behaved that other world leaders have not identified with our situation. If the government has taken a decisive step and took care of the problem after the Chibok girls’ abduction, the world would have stood by us.”
It was because these girls have an abiding faith in the Nigerian state and wanted to be patriotic, responsible and productive citizens that made them to still go and live in the school hostel in readiness of their West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in spite of the threat posed by the Boko Haram elements to anything relating to Western education around the Borno and Yobe states axis at the time. Every morning at the assembly ground, these girls sang the national anthem: “Arise, O Compatriots, Nigeria’s Call Obey…” And they dutifully and courageously obeyed Nigeria’s call to its citizens to seek knowledge by going to school against all odds. Yet the same Nigerian state callously failed to obey or respond to their distress call for help when the insurgents abducted them by capitalising on the failure of the government to provide them with adequate security while in campus.
While they were being taking to the depths of the forest in the dark of the night, these girls were so hopeful of a rescue team of the Nigerian army to immediately come to their aid that they were reported to be cleverly throwing out their foot-wears, handkerchiefs, pen/biros, rings, wristwatches etc., in order to provide a lead to any rescue team trying to find out where they were taken to. Sadly the Nigerian army simply ‘refused’ to move or so it seems, while the Nigerian government complete with the national assembly also appeared to have abandoned them to their ‘evil fate.’
A day passed, these girls were seriously hopeful of a rescue team to come, the second day passed, these girls were hopeful but worried, the third day passed, these girls were, at this point, thoroughly terrified at the reality of their hopeless situation, but they still remained hopeful. But by the time a week passed without any rescue team showing up, one can imagine the terrifying sense of hopelessness, despair, dejection, pain and fear that must have engulfed these girls and how they must have cried their hearts and eyes out in the horrific anticipation of the bad fate that laid ahead of them.
In this pathetic condition, they must have wondered and asked; ‘where is the Nigerian state that we have been singing its praises every morning at the assembly ground? Where are the army, air force, police, civil defence, Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the State Security Services (SSS)? Where are the chairmen of the affected local government areas, state commissioners of police and education, state house of assembly, state governor, Inspector General of Police, Chief of Defence Staff, National Security Adviser, ministers of education and defence, National Assembly and the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces? Sorrowfully and in a more subdued and helpless tone, the last two questions will be, ‘where are our parents/guardians and almighty God?’ Definitely, they know that even if the whole world abandoned them, their parents/guardians would always be with them in the same way their creator – almighty God will be watching and protecting them wherever they may be.
Honestly, God is also my strength in writing this article and I want to believe, is also the strength of their parents, the #BBOG groups and their well-wishers across the globe. God is certainly in control and surely, has miraculous ways or means of keeping these girls alive up to the moment of their rescue or safe return home.
Before then, it is instructive to remind us that, God has always enjoined us to put in great efforts in seeking His divine intervention in any matter bothering us; we must therefore intensify prayers and work extra hard to ensure that our girls are brought back to reunite with their respective families in the shortest time possible.
The Nigerian government must wake up to its responsibilities because it has failed woefully in the past, especially in its weak attempts to rescue or bring back the abducted girls. What a shame! I therefore, largely concur with the leader of the #BBOG group in Nigeria and former minister of education, Dr. Oby Ezekweseli, when she recently stressed that, out-going President Jonathan is not a hero and people should stop calling him one on account of his government’s failure to rescue the girls. She argued that he can only be regarded as a hero if he rescues the girls on or before he hands-over power to in-coming president Buhari and not simply because he willingly conceded defeat in the presidential election and congratulated the winner!
Our dear Chibok girls, as we eagerly await your safe return home, I wish to leave you with the words of Miss Yousafzai in her earlier mentioned letter to you thus: “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.”

Zongre, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Yerima Bappa Sanda Road, Turaki ‘A’ Ward, Jalingo. 08030830130, [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>;